HnCKLU  m  CUKUFC 

A  PAPER  PUBLISHED  «N  THE  INTEREST  OF  GOOD  FELLOWSHIP  AMONG  ALL  NATIONS. 


EUROPE   COMPANY.   FRANKFWt  f  MAIV 


MONDAY,  AUGUST  5.  1918 


LLOYD  GEORGE,  ADRESSING  THE  SAMMIES; 

"My  boy,  are  yoa  able  to  appreciate  the  high  bom.-!  that  you  are  permit  ted  to  die  !<» 


NEWSFROMAMERICA. 

Symptoms  of  imminent  Awakening. 

Even  the  Cbteaga  "Daily  Tribune"  takes  ex- 
ception  to  Eaginh   censoring   of  American 


WATH  ARE  YOU  FIGHTING  FOR,  SAMMY? 


WAR  NEWS. 

Tlie  fifth  Anniversary  of  ^« 

A  ^t^a^.1  ^  fhf  o 

K»j!t,i  il   and 

«-oi|,|  km-vv  that  .in  ftlropoan  Har  v 


PAGE  OP  THE  GERMAN   PROPAGANDA  ORGAN,  "AMERICA  IK 
EUROPE/'   PUBLISHED   FOR   CIRCULATION   AMONG   AMERICAN  TROOPS 


The  booty  of  the  Central-] 
after  four  years  of  ws 

At    the  end  of  the.  fourth  yea] 
I  the  number  of  prisoners  stalioned 

3,800,000  of  whom  2,300,00o'are  in  t 


•  by' 840,000 


alone    has 


merican  to  do  bis  duty 
ral  called  "the  Germans 
be  a  great  satisfaction 


,;i«,.l   Hoard   considers  America!  WitSOn'S  Methods 
cat"  t  ru'th  ?a'  What    antouTln                                   can>t  vf^n  *«  War- 
United    Slate*    aigainst    truth!       Spenking  on  Ihe  various  investigations  of 
ation   really  means:  Amenca  i*  «,„  u.  s.  Aeriaj  service  Senator  Brandegee 
•  German;  as  she  of  Connecticut  according  to  the  N.Y.  Evening 
nd  not  ait  fcnglaml  has  painted   pO3t  ,naf|e  ^  following  drastic  statement 
.                      .      1  in  (be  United  State*  Senate:  — 
""•••'iTr      linr'Siokl  «^ST«  1     "'rlle  Prc»w*ot  nas  already  two  reports 

l«     .Itliir   it     i.   nil     MiritnfTf    ""4    ""'    '•°r'1     ""^    knows    "'  !'«   «"»  make 

ig  bv-pliy      liiwt  >'  Crw  A«T/}  ""'"'   I'ub!ic  shoujd  the«!  be  anytlting  bad 

Tit  Bits. 

THE  WAR  ASD  THE  TABLKXO 
The  following  :m«  ia  th«  tMlstrargh 

Get  itp,  You  laty  »mner! 
We  ntwd  the  sbtels  for  UWtcloth 
And  If,  nfarly  lint  for  dlnoer-. 

•irstSanoiy    The  tbtttrtt    itont    go  no 

itself  to  the 
its  are  rather 
ehool  boards 


"The  war,  continued  (be  Senator,  can't 
be  won  with  privacy  and  mystery.  If  there 
;<aiiy  virtue  in  co-ordination,  let's  co-ordinate 
This  war  a  not  going  to  be  won  by  Colonel 
Ht.u«e  or  by  any  favorite  of  the  President. 

•\V  ,at,  t  win  this  war  by  talking  about 
wcm.iji  i-ufTrattf  anrt  prohibition.  We  can't 
win  the  war  by  sitting  around  at  pink  teas 
and  talking  about  putting  puitc  chemise  on 
the  roan  and  knee-breeches  on  the  women. 
Let«  get  down  to  brass-tacks.  Lets  find  out 
the  facts.  Lets  investigate  these  irregularities 
in  Mi.  non-partisan  way  and  report  to  in* 


Against  Jdlers. 

now  stale  law  passed  at  i 


iD  EMS  .R&I  (>  ^ 

parkartigem  Garten      }j  I    '  ; ;, 
etrmen  ErholungsaufenthaH   0  m'h""ii 


during  the  same  period  cam, 
to  38,000,  that  of  vehicle*  fro 
,000,    Xot  counting  the  destro 
the  number  of  captured  Tanks  is  ! 
Furthermore-,  to  the  number  of  ri 
iddi'U  since  the  first   of  August    1 
on,®  to  that  of  Artillerie  ammui 

200  million    rounds.     Moreover  30 
motives  and  28.000  railroad-cars  TP< 

This  enormous  booty  shows 
Herman  General  stuff  accomplished 
»  weaken  (he  fighting-force  of  U 
md  to  decrease'  their  nalional-w 
jillions. 


SMODd Sammy:  (after  refection)  What  do 
of  th.  Colonel  sa.?  to  lhaf- 

satisfy  and  further  »tu»n!at<  halt 
>rmaay  io  the  United  Stales  cvta  Sowe 

i!ojmPta  Victoria  aa*^**" 


•Jibtwjt*.   Quill  appropriate!  Yw  B»J  " 
he  cabbage  even  «otl«r  iu  new  denomi 


PALMENGARTEN  FRANK1 

BeJicbtester  Vcrgoflgoneplati:  Oro6-Fr 

:;  Re*chhalti«e  Mitten-  nad  Ab«odl 
Erstkiasbig«  Blere  ->Rein*  neue  u,  Alt 
jedert  Mittwoch  i 


PAGE  OF  THE  GERMAN   PROPAGANDA  ORGAN,  "AMERICA   IN 
EUROPE,"    PUBLISHED   FOR    CIRCULATION    AMONG    AMERICAN    TROOPS 


SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 
ELMER   T.    CLARK 


1 


^HR|  wl^^^^^^^^^^^m 


1  11 

IV 
,  I  I 


DR.   ELMER   T.    CLARK    IN    TREXCH   EQUIPMENT 


SOCIAL    STUDIES 
OF  THE  WAR 


BY 

ELMER  T.  CLARK 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW  XBJr  YORK 
GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


Copyright, 
George  H.  Doran  Company 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


PREFACE 

ONE  is  perhaps  guilty  of  an  unwarranted  rashness 
when  he  submits  another  contribution  to  the  multitude 
of  discussions  which  have  covered  so  many  phases  of 
the  great  world  war,  especially  since  it  comes  after 
hostilities  have  ceased,  and  I  gather  courage  to  risk  it 
only  from  the  fact  that  the  subjects  with  which  these 
essays  deal  have  not  been  adequately  interpreted  to  the 
American  people.  Indeed  they  have  scarcely  been 
touched  at  all,  and  yet  they  are  of  vital  importance  to 
our  thinking  and  to  the  settlement  of  the  lines  along 
which  our  social  effort  is  to  proceed  in  the  future. 

When  there  are  so  many  voices  calling  us  to  follow 
them,  and  since  so  many  of  them  are  calling  us  in  oppo- 
site directions,  one  should  present  his  credentials  be- 
fore he  presumes  to  speak.  During  the  time  which  I 
spent  on  the  western  front  with  the  American  armies, 
it  fell  to  my  unfortunate  lot  to  be  drafted  many  times 
for  the  purpose  of  guiding  sight-seers  through  the  sec- 
tor we  occupied,  and  I  became  very  familiar  with  the 
tourist  who  came  out  to  spend  a  day  and  see  "the  ter- 
rible war."  Many  times  they  were  veritable  nuisances, 
yet  from  them  we  secured  a  great  deal  of  amusement. 
These  people,  returning  to  America,  have  enlightened 
the  public  so  thoroughly  on  all  the  events  and  move- 


rr  i  ;"V  t'.fc 
1  I  U 


vi  PREFACE 

ments  of  the  war  that  one  is  sometimes  inclined  to  think 
that  nothing  more  remains  to  be  said  on  the  subject 
The  shorter  the  stay  abroad  the  more  authority  does 
one  frequently  throw  into  his  utterances ;  and  so  I  am 
persuaded  that  every  person  who  writes  should  attach 
to  his  writing  a  full  statement  of  the  experience  which 
qualifies  him  to  put  his  pen  to  paper. 

I  remember  one  person  who  was  quite  frank  in  this 
regard.  The  regularity  with  which  I  guided  tourists 
across  No  Man's  Land  had  become  a  joke  among  the 
officers  of  the  regiment,  and  we  would  sometimes  gather 
in  the  evening  to  recount  the  experiences  of  these  won- 
dering visitors  at  the  front.  One  night  the  chaplain 
came  into  the  assembly  with  a  copy  of  a  well-known 
magazine  which  contained  an  article  on  some  general 
subject  connected  with  the  welfare  of  the  American 
soldier.  The  writer  began  by  announcing  that  he 
had  the  answer  to  all  the  questions  the  people  had 
been  asking  about  the  welfare  of  their  boys  in  France, 
and  as  proof  of  this  he  cited  and  numbered  his 
experiences.  He  had  spent  ten  days  with  five  hun- 
dred officers,  presumably  on  the  transport  which  car- 
ried those  officers  to  France.  He  had  visited  general 
headquarters,  which  was  a  hundred  miles  behind  the 
lines,  and  had  a  conversation  with  Pershing.  He  had 
talked  with  doctors,  officers,  and  leading  people.  He 
had  lived  four  days  in  a  Y.  M.  C.  A.  dug-out  at  the 
front.  These  and  similar  facts  were  the  basis  on  which 
he  rested  his  statement  that  he  had  the  answers  to  all 
the  questions  the  people  were  asking.  Naturally,  there 


PREFACE  vii 

was  great  glee  among  the  officers  when  the  chaplain 
read  to  us  the  article  in  question.  Nevertheless  the 
journalist  established  a  good  precedent,  and  one  which 
I  shall  here  follow. 

Since  the  entry  of  the  United  States  into  the  war 
I  have  made  two  extended  trips  through  certain  of 
the  European  nations  involved,  and  I  was  accredited 
as  a  correspondent  by  the  foreign  offices  of  both  Lon- 
don and  Paris.  The  first  trip  was  undertaken  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  making  intensive  social  investiga- 
tions for  the  daily  and  religious  press  of  America;  on 
the  second  I  was  commissioned  to  do  some  special  jour- 
nalistic work  for  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, and  also  to  continue  the  social  studies  I  had  pre- 
viously made  for  the  press.  On  these  journeys  I  have 
gone  into  all  sections  of  England,  Scotland,  Ireland, 
France,  and  Italy,  visiting  all  of  the  great  cities  and  a 
multitude  of  smaller  towns  and  villages.  In  more  than 
one  hundred  and  fifty  centers  I  have  studied  social 
conditions  in  relation  to  the  soldiers,  the  civilian  pop- 
ulation, and  the  various  institutions  of  the  world's 
activities.  I  have  gone  into  the  churches,  the  schools, 
the  universities,  the  factories,  and  the  homes  of  the 
people;  I  have  lived  in  the  east  end  of  London  and 
shared  the  life  of  the  people  down  Whitechapel  way; 
in  Rome,  London,  Dublin,  Paris,  and  a  hundred  other 
places,  I  have  mixed  freely  with  the  common  people 
of  the  streets.  Night  after  night  and  day  after  day 
I  have  watched  the  evil  machinations  of  the  most  sinis- 
ter agencies  working  in  European  society,  and  for  a 


viii  PREFACE 

year  I  have  delved  into  the  facts  and  the  causes  of  the 
reign  of  immorality  in  the  warring  countries;  I  know 
personally  scores  of  persons  involved,  I  have  heard  the 
stories  in  courts  of  justice,  I  have  seen  the  workings 
of  the  devilish  agencies  with  my  own  eyes.  And  in 
the  same  degree  I  have  studied  as  hest  I  could  the  other 
social  institutions  and  influences. 

As  regards  the  actual  war  itself,  I  have  not  heen 
altogether  lacking  in  opportunities  for  study.  I  have 
been  in  scores  of  military  centers  of  all  kinds;  I  have 
visited  and  personally  inspected  rest  camps,  base  hos- 
pitals, convalescent  camps,  training  centers,  munition 
factories,  ordnance  plants,  lumber  camps,  aerial  train- 
ing centers,  naval  aviation  stations,  construction  camps, 
mine  bases,  destroyer  bases,  submarine  bases,  army 
headquarters,  and  ports  of  entry.  I  have  lived  for  an 
extended  period  with  the  fighting  men  of  the  American 
armies,  marching  with  them  across  France  and  moving 
with  them  into  the  front  lines.  For  months  I  have 
lived  with  a  division  under  the  enemy's  fire,  sleeping 
in  the  trenches  and  dug-outs,  moving  at  will  through 
support  lines,  front  trenches,  and  outposts  in  No  Man's 
Land,  and  in  every  way  sharing  the  experiences  of  the 
men.  I  have  driven  a  truck  for  many  successive  nights 
through  the  American  sector,  where  nothing  could 
move  in  the  light  of  day,  along  roads  choked  with  traf- 
fic and  swept  by  the  enemy's  fire.  I  have  messed  and 
lived  in  the  wrecked  and  ruined  villages  of  northern 
France,  and  from  the  last  observation  post  watched  the 
enemy  in  his  own  lines.  I  have  been  through  forty  air 


PREFACE  ix 

raids  and  a  dozen  gas  attacks.  I  have  spoken  to  soldier 
audiences  in  machine  gun  emplacements  and  dug-outs 
while  the  shells  burst  about  us;  I  have  associated  with 
enemy  prisoners,  and  have  seen  our  own  men  mangled, 
bleeding,  and  dying.  In  the  great  hospitals  I  have 
undressed  them,  have  served  as  a  stretcher  bearer,  and 
have  heard  their  stories  as  they  lay  pale  and  helpless 
at  the  door  of  death.  But  why  prolong  an  egoistic 
recital!  I  have  shared  in  the  experiences  of  the  sol- 
diers and  have  lived  their  life,  I  have  seen  the  terrors 
of  the  war  in  all  of  its  departments,  and  I  have  investi- 
gated social  conditions  as  thoroughly  as  possible  all 
over  the  allied  nations  which  I  visited.  Out  of  this 
experience  I  give  these  essays. 

Two  or  three  explanatory  remarks  should  be  made. 
One  is  that  I  approach  all  questions  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  average  man  on  the  streets,  and  the  con- 
clusions set  forth  are  from  his  point  of  view.  I  have 
been  criticized  frequently,  and  my  conclusions  have 
been  disputed,  by  clergymen  and  others  who  have 
looked  at  things  through  their  own  glasses.  Especially 
have  I  been  berated  for  my  revelations  concerning  im- 
morality; some  have  denounced  me  because  they 
doubted  the  statements,  others  because  they  did  not 
think  the  situation  should  be  revealed.  I  can  only 
reply  that  I  have  simply  told  what  I  absolutely  know 
to  be  the  facts,  and  I  think  the  truth  should  be  told. 
Two  of  my  close  friends  took  offense  when  my  dis- 
patches were  first  published  in  regard  to  the  moral 
breakdown;  I  later  met  both  of  them  in  London,  and 


x  PREFACE 

both  of  them  then  apologized  for  the  attitude  they  had 
taken  prior  to  seeing  matters  for  themselves.  One  in 
my  position,  after  having  been  severely  condemned 
early  in  1917  for  the  publication  of  dispatches  reveal- 
ing the  deplorable  situation  in  the  cities  of  Europe,  may 
be  pardoned  for  welcoming  the  verifications,  like  that 
of  Alfred  No-yes  in  The  Saturday  Evening  Post,  which 
have  been  openly  admitted  since  the  cessation  of  hos- 
tilities. 

In  these  articles  one  will  find  certain  repetitions 
here  and  there,  and  there  will  appear  differences  in  the 
matter  of  tense,  etc.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  some 
of  the  material  has  been  published  in  another  form,  and 
all  of  the  articles  were  written  independently  and  at 
different  times.  The  New  York  Tribune  and  the  St. 
Louis  Republic  have  kindly  consented  to  the  reworking 
and  republication  of  the  material  herein.  I  claim  no  un- 
usual degree  of  insight  or  information  over  other  peo- 
ple who  have  visited  the  war  zones ;  I  only  seek  to  write 
from  a  different  standpoint  and  with  absolute  freedom. 
If  the  essays  throw  any  light  on  any  phase  of  society 
in  these  times,  and  especially  if  they  will  enable  any 
American  organization  to  see  how  suffering  Europe 
may  be  helped,  I  shall  be  amply  repaid  for  the  writing. 

ELMER  T.  CLARK. 


CONTENTS 

PREFACE  PAGE 

I  IMMORALITY  IN  EUROPE  DURING  THE  WAR    .  17 

II  WHAT  DOES  IRELAND  INTEND? 46 

III  THE  ROOT  OF  THE  IRISH  QUESTION      ...  66 

IV  THE  POPE  AND  THE  WAR 87 

V  THE  RELIGIOUS  SITUATION  IN  THE  WAR    .     .  106 

VI  THE  CLERGY  AND  THE  PEOPLE 136 

VII  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  WAR 152 

VIII  RECONSTRUCTION  IN  RELIGION  AFTER  THE  WAR  171 

IX  THE  CHALLENGE  OF  THE  WAR  TO  THE  CHURCH  201 

X  THE  GERMANS  AND  THE  TURKS       ....  226 

XI  AMONG  THE  TOILERS 240 

XII  A  HERITAGE  OF  HATE 252 

XIII  THE  CITIES  OF  HORRIBLE  NIGHTS  .               ,  261 


ILLUSTRATIONS 
DR.  ELMER  T.  CLARK  IN  TRENCH  EQUIPMENT  Frontispiece 

PAGE 

PROCLAMATIONS  OF  THE  MANSION  HOUSE  CON- 
FERENCE AND  THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH 
URGING  THE  IRISH  TO  RESIST  CONSCRIPTION  .  .  48 

CORNER  OF  SACKEVILLE  STREET  IN  DUBLIN  AFTER 
THE  SINN  FEIN  REBELLION  OF  1916  ....  80 

WRECKED  SHOP  IN  DUBLIN  AFTER  THE  SINN  FEIN 
REBELLION  OF  1916 80 

IRISH  ANTI-CONSCRIPTION  PLEDGE 96 

AMERICAN  LUMBERMEN  IN  THE  SCOTCH  HIGHLANDS, 
THE  FIRST  CONTINGENT  OF  THE  A.  E.  F.  TO  LAND 
ON  EUROPEAN  SOIL 128 

Y.  M.  C.  A.  HUT  IN  THE  WOODS  MILES  FROM  ANY 
TOWN  OR  HABITATION 128 

GERMAN  PROPAGANDA:  "!N  THE  TRENCHES —  'BE- 
HOLD I  AM  WITH  You  ALWAYS'  ' 232 

GERMAN  PROPAGANDA:  "AT  THE  ADVANCE  POSTS — 
1  AM  THE  GOOD  SHEPHERD*  ' 232 

"Le  VIEUX  DIEU  ALLEMAND."  THE  FRENCH  CON- 
CEPTION OF  THE  GERMAN  GOD 256 


Xlll 


SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 


SOCIAL  STUDIES 
OF  THE  WAR 

CHAPTEE  I 

IMMORALITY  IN  EUROPE  DURING  THE  WAS, 

We  are  accustomed  to  hearing  that  war  acts  as  a 
regenerator  of  the  national  life,  bringing  patriotism, 
sacrifice,  unselfishness,  and  devotion  to  principle  for- 
ward to  such  a  degree  as  to  produce  a  more  virile  and 
devoted  citizenship.  It  may  be  that  such  a  contention 
has  a  certain  foundation  in  fact  upon  the  one  side,  yet 
the  most  casual  observer  of  events  in  the  great  Euro- 
pean war  must  be  impressed  with  the  fact  that  this 
struggle  is  breeding  enough  immorality  and  vice  to 
overwhelmingly  counter-balance  any  such  spiritual 
gains  that  may  perchance  accrue.  The  war  has  bred 
viciousness  in  an  amazing  fashion,  and  there  is  a  de- 
mand, therefore,  for  some  very  plain  speaking  and  a 
frank  recognition  of  a  critical  condition  in  order  to 
insure  our  social  salvation. 

To  one  interested  in  the  problems  of  society  the  most 
apparent  fact  in  connection  with  the  war  is  this  great 

17 


.18          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 


s  in  immorality.  In  every  European  city  vice 
is  rampant.  It  stalks  the  streets  openly,  day  and  night, 
and  with  brazen  effrontery  flaunts  itself  in  the  face  of 
the  law,  order,  and  all  moral  conceptions.  So  deplor- 
able has  the  situation  become  that  there  is  small  danger 
of  exaggerating  its  seriousness.  While  there  has  been 
a  decrease  in  what  we  usually  regard  as  the  more  fla- 
grant forms  of  crime,  burglary,  highway  robbery,  mur- 
der, and  the  like,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  men,  who 
usually  commit  such  crimes,  have  been  placed  in  the 
armies,  misbehavior  of  the  more  unmentionable  type 
has  received  the  greatest  impetus  it  has  ever  known. 
And  to-day  the  streets  of  London,  Paris,  Rome,  and 
other  cities  are  veritable  cesspools  of  iniquity.  So 
much  so,  indeed,  that  the  sojourner  in  these  places 
feels  as  if  they  have  abandoned  all  moral  restraints  and 
thrown  to  the  winds  all  desires  and  attempts  to  pre- 
serve the  purity  and  the  health  of  their  people. 

In  all  of  these  cities  the  streets  are  thronged  with 
women  of  the  underworld.  There  are  thousands  upon 
thousands  of  them,  moving  here  and  there  in  the  dark- 
ened avenues  and  plying  their  trade  with  the  utmost 
abandon  and  boldness.  So  prolific  are  they  that  it  is 
nothing  unusual  to  see  four  or  five  girls  accost  a  man 
simultaneously  and  fall  to  disputing  among  themselves 
as  to  which  has  the  prior  claim  upon  his  attentions; 
and  so  bold  are  they  that  they  frequent  constantly  the 
lounges  and  the  tea  rooms  of  the  best  hotels  with  per- 
fect freedom  and  confidence.  The  courtesans  have  an 
especial  predilection  for  the  soldiers,  and  these  men, 


IMMORALITY  DURING  THE  WAR        19 

many  of  whom  come  from  distant  colonies  overseas  and 
are  without  friends  in  the  great  centers  of  European 
population,  fall  easy  prey  to  their  machinations.  So 
alarming  are  the  proportions  which  the  vice  problem 
has  assumed  on  account  of  the  war  that  the  casual 
observer  is  almost  constrained  to  believe  that  the  whole 
moral  fabric  of  the  nations  has  been  destroyed. 

The  causes  for  such  a  state  of  affairs  are  vfcry  ap- 
parent. In  the  first  place  the  problem  is  aggravated  by 
the  thousands  of  refugees  who  have  been  driven  into 
foreign  cities.  These  refugees  have  furnished  a  large 
per  cent  of  the  immoral  women,  hundreds  of  them 
drifting  to  the  street  under  the  pressure  of  economic 
and  social  needs.  Then  there  are  the  wives  and  the 
widows  of  the  soldiers,  who,  in  the  absence  of  the 
husbands,  have  become  degenerate.  It  is  a  remarkable 
fact  that  nearly  all  of  these  women  claim  to  belong  to 
this  class;  I  have  spoken  to  a  large  number  of  them, 
and  almost  without  exception  they  have  claimed  that 
their  husbands  are  in  the  army  or  have  fallen  on  the 
fields.  One  may  not  judge  whether  the  statements  are 
true  or  whether  the  women  believe  there  is  an  especial 
virtue  in  having  a  man  with  the  colors,  but  it  is  well 
known  that  the  absence  of  the  men  is  one  of  the  largest 
factors  in  the  increase  of  crime.  Here  is  a  young 
woman  whose  husband  has  cared  for  her  in  all  things, 
furnishing  her  the  support,  the  companionship,  and  the 
amusement  which  her  nature  has  desired.  The  young 
man  is  taken  into  the  army,  and  at  once  the  companion- 
ship, the  amusement,  and  most  of  the  support  is  with- 


20          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

drawn.  The  young  woman  becomes  the  victim  of  an 
intense  loneliness.  She  can  no  longer  live  in  the  man- 
ner to  which  she  has  become  accustomed,  and  unless 
she  is  a  strong  character,  or  is  willing  to  seek  employ- 
ment, both  for  its  income  and  for  the  occupation  itself, 
she  will  have  difficulty  in  adjusting  herself  to  the  new 
condition.  She  seeks  companionship  and  diversion, 
finding  both  in  the  public  house  or  saloon,  which  is  a 
social  institution  and  which  prevalent  ideas  permit  her 
to  frequent  without  a  compromise.  JSTaturally,  the 
friends  she  makes  at  the  public  house  do  not  strengthen 
her  moral  determinations,  and  the  liquor  she  drinks 
causes  her  to  lose  her  sense  of  restraint.  And  from 
this  environment  she  drifts  to  the  streets  through  a 
gradual  evolution,  and  in  accordance  with  the  funda- 
mental cravings  of  her  nature.  This  is  the  history  of 
thousands  of  women  whose  husbands  serve  with  the 
armies  in  the  field. 

Of  the  seriousness  of  this  situation  there  can  be  no 
doubt.  Hundreds  of  soldiers  have  returned  on  leave  to 
their  homes  to  find  their  wives  gone,  depraved,  diseased, 
or  the  mothers  of  illegitimate  children.  The  law  courts, 
temperance  societies,  and  all  social  agencies  have  been 
forced  to  take  cognizance  of  the  deplorable  situation. 
Case  after  case  has  been  brought  to  public  notice  until 
the  list  runs  into  the  thousands.  A  corporal,  who  was 
declared  by  his  officer  to  be  the  best  type  of  soldier,  came 
home  from  the  Somme  to  spend  Christmas  with  his 
family,  and  when  he  found  the  public  house  had  caused 
the  ruin  of  his  wife  he  committed  murder ;  and  in  pro- 


IMMORALITY  DURING  THE  WAR        21 

nouncing  sentence  the  judge  declared  from  the  bench 
that  "such  a  man,  with  such  a  character,  ought  not  to 
be  with  criminals."  "You  should  make  trenches  be- 
tween our  homes  and  the  public  house,"  exclaimed  a 
young  soldier  to  a  Member  of  Parliament  who  had 
urged  his  enlistment  under  promise  that  his  family 
would  be  cared  for.  Another  man,  returning  from  the 
trenches,  found  that  his  wife  had  committed  suicide, 
preferring  death  to  facing  her  husband  after  her  shame, 
leaving  three  children,  including  one  just  born,  to  break 
to  their  father  the  news  of  their  mother's  infidelity. 
Such  happenings  are  so  common  that  they  are  now 
scarcely  exceptional;  the  tragic  tales  are  told  daily  in 
the  press  and  before  the  courts.  So  common,  indeed, 
have  they  become  that  the  British  courts,  for  the  first 
time  in  history,  have  recognized  what  in  America  is 
called  "the  unwritten  law." 

It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed  that  the  wrong  is 
confined  exclusively  to  the  women  left  at  home,  for  the 
men  have  done  their  share  in  bringing  about  the  condi- 
tion. I  was  told  on  good  authority,  by  one  who  pro- 
fessed to  know  and  who  had  every  opportunity  of  know- 
ing, that  there  had  been  more  than  ten  thousand  proven 
cases  of  bigamy  among  the  overseas  troops  of  the  Brit- 
ish Empire,  and  that  the  government  was  endeavoring 
to  solve  the  difficult  problem  thus  presented.  I  was  one 
day  approached  by  an  officer  in  great  distress  of  mind, 
because,  having  been  summoned  to  testify  regarding  the 
suicide  of  a.  Brother  officer,  he  faced  the  necessity  of 
perjuring  himself  or  bearing  a  witness  which  would  dis- 


22          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

grace  the  memory  and  family  of  his  friend.  The  truth 
was  that  the  man  had  married  a  second  wife  in  France 
and,  ahout  to  be  discharged  from  the  army,  committed, 
suicide  to  avoid  the  revelations  which  would  inevitably 
follow  his  return  to  civil  life.  I  have  personal  knowl- 
edge, also,  of  a  case  in  which  an  officer  attempted  to 
marry  a  French  girl;  the  girl,  however,  took  the  pre- 
caution of  writing  the  mayor  of  the  man's  home  town, 
and  she  received  the  intelligence  that  her  suitor  had  a 
wife  and  children  back  at  home. 

On  another  occasion  I  talked  with  a  young  woman 
who  had  been  placed  in  a  difficult  situation.  Her  hus- 
band was  an  officer,  the  son  of  a  wealthy  English  fam- 
ily, and  when  he  returned  from  the  front  on  leave  he 
spent  all  of  his  time  with  another  woman  and  openly 
refused  to  have  further  relations  with  his  young  wife. 
The  result  was  that  his  family  promised  her  a  liberal 
allowance  if  she  would  go  to  London  with  one  of  the 
children  and  give  the  other  to  the  mother-in-law.  With- 
in a  few  months  she  was  notified  that  the  allowance 
would  be  reduced  to  a  point  which  made  it  almost  im- 
possible for  her  to  live,  and  her  protest  brought  infor- 
mation from  a  solicitor  that  the  family  were  under  no 
obligations  to  her,  that  her  husband  had  nothing  in  his 
own  right,  and  that  she  must  either  accept  the  reduc- 
tion or  get  nothing.  It  was  evident  that  this  action  was 
preliminary  to  cutting  her  off  entirely,  and  one  could 
but  be  apprehensive  of  the  result  when  such  action 
should  finally  be  taken. 

I  know  another  case  personally,  sadder  than  either  of 


IMMORALITY  DURING  THE  WAR        23 

these  mentioned.  The  husband  was  in  a  venereal  hos- 
pital, from  which  he  went  to  his  home  regularly  on 
visits.  Because  his  wife  refused  to  receive  him  inti- 
mately on  account  of  his  condition  he  placed  the  small 
child  in  a  hoarding  school  and  withdrew  all  support 
from  his  wife,  leaving  her  in  London  with  nothing  save 
the  government  allowance  of  one  pound  per  week.  In 
this  case  the  man  had  long  been  carrying  on  improper 
relations  with  his  wife's  younger  sister. 

The  condition  of  which  these  cases  are  symptomatic 
seems  to  ramify  through  all  classes  of  society.  I  have 
seen  American  officers  and  welfare  workers  with  a  large 
number  of  visiting  cards  bearing  the  names  of  women 
respectable  in  society,  judging  from  their  addresses, 
which  had  been  given  to  them  on  trains,  in  the  streets, 
and  in  motor  busses,  always  with  the  suggestion  of  fur- 
ther acquaintanceship.  I  talked  with  the  wife  of  a  ma- 
jor in  the  British  army,  expressing  my  surprise  at  such 
a  condition,  and  she  said,  in  effect,  "We  are  under  such 
a  strain  that  we  have  simply  agreed  to  set  aside  our  old 
conceptions.  My  own  friends  are  doing  things  openly 
which  would  have  caused  their  disgrace  before  the  war. 
While  the  war  continues  we  are  seeing  nothing  and 
thinking  nothing." 

In  England  the  condition  was  brought  prominently 
to  the  fore  during  the  trial  of  Mr.  Pemberton  Billing, 
Member  of  Parliament,  for  libel,  a  trial  which  was  a 
national  scandal.  Mr.  Billing  alleged  that  people  of 
high  estate  were  guilty  of  the  most  unspeakable  ex- 
cesses, even  mentioning  in  court  the  name  of  a  former 


24          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

Prime  Minister.  It  was  declared  that  the  Germans 
possessed  a  Black  Book  containing  the  names  of  47,000 
prominent  English  people  thus  guilty,  and  that  this  in- 
formation was  used  by  the  enemy  not  only  to  further 
the  demoralization  of  the  social  life  of  England  but 
also  to  prevent  activity  on-  the  part  of  the  people  thus 
known.  Over  and  over  again  Mr.  Billing  was  de- 
nounced by  the  judge  who  was  trying  the  case,  and  he 
in  turn  gave  and  offered  testimony*  showing  that  the 
judge's  own  name  was  in  the  Black  Book.  At  the  con- 
clusion of  the  disgraceful  trial  the  jury  quickly  acquit- 
ted the  defendant,  thus  proving  that  they  believed  the 
story  of  the  Book,  to  the  great  joy  of  the  hangers-on. 

As  an  aftermath  of  this  trial  the  journal  John  Bull, 
a  very  popular  and  influential  weekly  which  possesses, 
however,  little  to  commend  it  to  the  conservative  or  con- 
structive forces  of  the  Empire,  made  these  remarks: 
"For  years  past  there  have  been  persistent  and  never 
to  be  stifled  whispers  and  rumors  of  the  prevalence  of 
these  sexual  vices — on  the  part  of  both  sexes — amongst 
all  the  higher  ranks  of  society.  Artists,  authors,  poli- 
ticians, musicians,  actors,  actresses,  the  clergy — all  have 
contributed  their  quota  to  the  volume  of  evil  report.  Go 
into  any  West  End  club,  into  any  theatrical  group,  into 
any  artistic  coterie,  or  any  political  social  gathering — 
where  men  and  women  are  free  to  speak — and  you  hear 
the  same  names  repeated.  Go  to  any  week-end  party  at 
a  country  house,  and  you  find  the  same  scientific  selec- 
tion and  grouping  of  guests.  Before  the  war  the  Thing 
was  bad  enough — to-day  it  is  infinitely  worse.  So  far 


IMMORALITY  DURING  THE  WAR        25 

as  women  are  concerned,  the  absence  of  their  men  at 
the  front  has  undoubtedly  aggravated  the  evil.  On  the 
other  hand  the  nervous  strain  of  the  war  and  the  idiotic 
talk  about  modern  culture  and  all  the  rest  of  it,  have 
had  their  effect  upon  the  neurotic  and  erotic  tempera- 
ments of  men  blase  with  the  ordinary  attractions  of 
life — with  the  result  that  to-day  sexual  perversity  is 
more  rife  than  ever  it  has  been  before.  It  is  no  part 
of  my  intention  recklessly  to  pillory  the  principal  de- 
votees of  these  devilish  arts — but  I  solemnly  warn  them 
that  unless  they  take  the  hint  given  by  recent  events 
and  disown  and  discard  their  abnormal  practices,  no 
consideration  of  either  fear  or  convention  will  restrain 
me  from  publishing  a  Black  Book  of  my  own.  I  do  not 
say  it  will  contain  forty-seven  thousand  names,  but 
there  are  certainly  forty-seven — known  to  every  man 
and  woman  about  town — the  publication  of  which  would 
shake  the  foundations  of  society.  They  include  those 
of  peers  and  their  sons  and  daughters,  of  politicians  and 
their  wives,  of  actors  and  actresses,  of  authors  and  ar- 
tists, of  clerics  and  ministers — 'established'  and  non- 
conformist— all  famous  in  their  respective  spheres,  and 
all  at  present  protected  by  that  weird  free-masonry 
which  is  the  gospel  and  moral  of  sexual  perversity." 

That  a  vast  deal  of  the  immorality  prevalent  in  Eng- 
land and  France  comes  from  Germany  is  the  belief  of 
thousands  of  those  who  are  well  versed  in  the  methods 
of  the  enemy.  "Le  Vice  Allemand,"  it  is  called.  That 
such  evil  was  prevalent  in  Germany  to  a  horrid  extent 
even  before  the  war  is  well  known,  and  since  the  out- 


26          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

break  of  hostilities  the  world  has  heard  the  most  atro- 
cious rumors  of  what  was  happening  in  the  social  life 
of  the  enemy  country — of  how  women  were  used  like 
beasts  for  the  propagation  of  the  race,  of  how  it  became 
the  acme  of  patriotic  achievement  for  even  girls  "to 
present  a  future  soldier  to  the  emperor,"  of  how  men 
were  instructed  in  regard  to  their  social  duty  when  sent 
away  from  the  front  on  leave  or  discharged  on  account 
of  wounds.  The  record  of  the  Boche  in  Belgium  and 
northern  France  and  Poland  bears  witness  to  the  fact 
that  his  militarism  had  bred  viciousness  in  its  worst 
form  and  corrupted  an  entire  people.  And  there  seems 
little  cause  to  doubt  that  the  wave  of  immorality  in  al- 
lied countries  is  at  least  aided  and  abetted  by  enemy 
spies.  Thousands  of  the  refugees  are  declared  to  be  no 
refugees  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word,  but  common 
prostitutes  sent  by  the  enemy  from  Alsace,  Lorraine, 
everywhere,  to  spread  destruction  in  the  social  order 
and  worm  secrets  from  the  people  of  allied  lands. 

The  fact  that  such  a  belief  had  been  gaining  adher- 
ents explains  something  of  the  anger  of  the  people  at 
the  revelations  made  in  the  case  of  Pemberton  Billing. 
Some  of  those  whose  names  were  mentioned  had  con- 
ducted affairs  of  state  in  a  manner  very  displeasing  to 
the  people  who  were  anxious  "to  get  on  with  the  war" ; 
they  had  refused  to  undertake  a  policy  of  reprisals  in 
the  matter  of  air  raids,  to  intern  all  enemy  aliens,  to 
make  cotton  contraband,  to  stop  the  flow  of  German 
reservists  from  America  to  Germany,  to  adopt  a  more 
positive  military  policy  than  that  of  "wait  and  see." 


IMMORALITY  DURING  THE  WAR        27 

There  was,  therefore,  a  storm  of  indignation  when  it 
was  openly  declared  that  some  of  those  thus  lax  figured 
in  the  notorious  Black  Book.  Could  it  be  that  the  en- 
emy was  blackmailing  influential  men  into  inactivity 
by  virtue  of  a  loathsome  knowledge  possessed  about 
them?  "How  can  it  be  wondered,"  asks  John  Bull, 
"that  ordinary  citizens — what  the  superior  folk  call  the 
'common  people' — believe  that  German  influence  has 
been  at  work  ?  One  mistake — two  mistakes — of  policy ; 
one  blunder — ten  blunders — favoring  Germany,  might 
be  put  down  to  ignorance.  No  government  is  fool-proof, 
but  deliberate  acts,  defended  often  with  venom,  justified 
with  heat,  the  critics  either  derided  or  denounced — 
which  have  all  helped  the  enemy  and  crippled  us  in  the 
war — need  some  other  explanation  than  stupidity — and 
God  knows  we  have  seen  enough  of  that  since  August, 
1914!  The  crowds  that  seethed  about  the  Old  Bailey 
the  other  day  believed  that  one  secret  of  much  of  this 
cruel  incompetence  and  wicked  weakness  and  inaction 
which  until  recently  clogged  the  wheels  of  war  is  to  be 
found  in  that  Black  Book,  and  the  jury — despite  every 
rule  of  law — accepted  fully  the  story  told  them. 

"If  the  Hun  was  content  to  wallow  in  his  own  filth, 
to  sink  in  the  bog  of  his  own  bestiality,  we  might  de- 
plore the  decadence  of  a  race  never  noted  for  moral 
strength  and  cleanliness.  But  there  is  a  greater  danger, 
and  it  is  one  against  which  this  country  must  fight  with 
all  its  might — the  danger  of  contamination  from  crea- 
tures like  Bertha  Trost — the  woman  of  unspeakable 
practices,  who  was  kicked  out  of  this  country  after  war 


28          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

had  run  some  months  its  course,  and  who  used  her 
house  not  only  to  corrupt  some  of  the  best  manhood  of 
England,  but  to  play  the  spy  for  Germany.  There  is 
enough  evidence  to  convict  our  foul  enemy  of  deliber- 
ately using  men  and  women  for  the  fell  purpose  of  de- 
moralizing those  who  might  from  their  position  fall  an 
easy  prey  to  the  careful  inquisitiveness  of  those  agents 
of  the  Hun.  Not  only  in  tha  west  end  of  London 
have  these  degenerate  harpies  designed  their  lairs,  but 
in  the  big  seaports  of  the  country  depraved  women  have 
been  used  by  the  Kaiser  and  his  tools  to  worm  the  se- 
crets out  of  men  and  make  them  play  traitor  to  their 
King  and  country.  If  ever  there  was  a  nation  of  des- 
picable creatures  who  subscribe  to  the  gospel  that  'the 
end  justifies  the  means/  Germany  is  that  nation.  With- 
out common  decency,  ignorant  of  the  meaning  of 
honor,  corrupt  and  corrupting,  these  skunks  of  Europe 
have  played  their  loathsome  game  to  the  end  that  the 
purity  of  civilized  communities  might  be  defiled  and 
honest  men  turned  into  miserable  moral  lepers.  If  the 
true  story  of  the  plots  and  schemes  leading  up  to,  and 
continuing  during,  the  war  is  ever  told,  it  will  be  found 
that  decent  men — yes,  and  women,  too — have  been  art- 
fully enmeshed  in  the  toils  of  lasciviousness,  shackled 
in  chains  of  unnatural  vice,  and  held  in  bondage  by  the 
terror  of  their  own  evil  doings." 

The  realization  that  the  enemy  could  thus  intrigue  to 
destroy  even  personal  purity  among  the  civilian  popula- 
tion was  responsible  for  a  new  outburst  of  hatred. 
"They  have  turned  unnatural  vice  into  a  religion ;  they 


IMMORALITY  DURING  THE  WAR        29 

have  their  ritual  for  wrong  doing  and  their  orders  of 
service  for  the  most  debased  and  bestial  of  practices. 
Among  all  decent  men — in  any  society  where  chastity 
is  given  honorable  recognition,  where  the  purity  of 
young  manhood  and  the  virtue  of  women  is  counted  a 
priceless  possession — the  things  which  are  spoken  of  in 
Germany  with  devilish  arrogance  and  inhuman  pride 
are  only  recognized  in  asylums  for  the  insane,  in  re- 
treats for  the  mentally  debased.    Would  it  be  believed 
that  in  the  land  of  the  Hun  they  would  alter  the  very 
laws  which  bring  to  punishment  those  who  debase  phys- 
ical purity,  and  one  of  their  most  famous,  or  infamous, 
authors  pleads  for  toleration  of  the  most  unspeakable 
crimes  against  naturehood,  and  contemplates  the  time 
when  his  false  and  perverted  view  shall  have  'permeated 
the  wide  circles  of  the  population'  and  when  'the  old  con- 
sciousness of  right  will  be  replaced  by  the  new  one, 
which  will  demand  the  repeal  of  a  criminal  law  by 
which  a  natural  phenomenon  is  regarded  as  a  vice  and 
is  treated  as  infamous'?     How  can  any  decent  man 
boast  of  finding  a  'spiritual  home'  in  this  land  of  male 
perverts  and  female  decadents?     The  time  will  come 
when  the  morally  weak,  and  those  whose  patriotism  is 
thin  and  anemic,  will  ask  the  manhood  of  Great  Brit- 
ain to  make  friends  with  the  nation  of  moral  lepers. 
In  God's  name,  let  us  keep  our  heads — aye,  and  en- 
deavor by  every  means  in  our  power  to  keep  free  from 
the  contaminating  touch  of  the  Hun." 

Thus  far  has  social  looseness  gone  in  England;  thus 
far  has  it  been  recognized  by  a  saddened  people.     Not 


SO         SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  !THE  WAR 

only  is  London  thus  affected,  but  the  blight  has  spread 
to  most  of  the  cities  and  towns  of  the  United  Kingdom 
— Liverpool  is  the  worst  of  all.  And  the  same  condi- 
tions obtain  in  the  other  nations;  in  the  degree  of  bad- 
ness I  would  arrange  them  thus:  England,  France, 
Italy,  Scotland,  Ireland.  The  nations  have  realized  the 
necessity  of  some  corrective  measures  but  have  been 
powerless  to  devise  them.  A  proposition  was  made  to 
place  the  wives  of  soldiers  under  control,  but  it  was 
dropped  because  of  the  reflection  which  such  an  act 
would  inevitably  cast  upon  the  families  of  the  men  giv- 
ing their  lives  for  the  country. 

There  is  another  phase  to  the  subject  in  connection 
with  the  causes  for  the  carnival  of  crime ;  it  is  found  in 
the  lack  of  restraint  on  the  part  of  the  womanhood  of 
the  lands  towards  the  soldiers.  At  its  heart  this  is 
founded  upon  a  noble  sentiment  and  has  been  encour- 
aged in  many  ways.  Europe  loves  her  soldiers.  She 
will  make  any  sacrifice  for  their  comfort.  The  women 
have  vied  with  one  another  in  their  efforts  to  entertain 
them  and  contribute  to  their  well  being.  The  best  homes 
are  opened  to  them  and  they  are  wined  and  dined  con- 
tinuously. Each  woman  and  girl  seems  to  consider  her- 
self a  committee  of  one  to  do  something  for  a  soldier. 
Thus  the  restraint  which  in  ordinary  times  hedges  the 
freedom  of  association  between  the  women  and  the  men 
has  been  thrown  aside.  And  beyond  question  this  has 
contributed  something  to  the  ruin  of  the  girls  and  the 
seriousness  of  the  social  evil. 

Now  if  this  is  the  actual  state  of  affairs  in  the  bel- 


IMMORALITY  DURING  THE  WAR        SI 

ligerent  countries,  we  might  expect  that  superhuman  ef- 
forts would  be  put  forth  to  stem  the  tide  of  immorality 
and  save  the  people.  Yet  the  exact  reverse  is  true.  So 
far  as  the  ordinary  person  is  able  to  discover,  there  is 
absolutely  no  action  being  taken  to  control  the  evil.  The 
laws,  of  course,  stand  on  the  statute  books  and  we  oc- 
casionally read  of  a  conviction,  but  all  this  means  noth- 
ing but  a  small  fine,  perhaps  a  brief  imprisonment, 
notoriety  through  the  public  press,  and  then  the  victim 
is  sent  out  worse  than  ever,  hardened,  resentful,  and 
with  the  door  of  reformation  effectually  closed  against 
her.  The  difficulties  in  such  a  situation  are  well  known 
and  are  the  same  in  all  countries:  the  difficulty  of  se- 
curing evidence,  the  lack  of  any  adequate  corrective 
agencies,  the  general  attitude  which  prevents  reforma- 
tion, and  the  inability  to  grapple  with  the  evil  at  its 
base  by  reaching  the  ultimate  cause  of  it. 

To  speak  of  the  problem  which  such  a  reign  of  im- 
morality is  preparing  for  the  future  is  to  raise  at  once 
the  entire  range  of  social  questions.  There  is  no  form 
of  crime  which  ramifies  so  thoroughly  through  the  struc- 
ture of  a  people's  life  as  the  social  evil,  and  the  present 
carnival  of  misbehavior,  which  I  am  constrained  to  be- 
lieve rivals  any  similar  situation  which  has  ever  faced 
the  world  in  its  history,  is  piling  up  for  us  trouble  of  a 
most  serious  kind.  In  the  first  place,  we  shall  have  to 
consider  anew  the  question  of  illegitimacy,  and  this  will 
involve  a  complete  change  of  attitude  toward  unfortu- 
nate children  if  it  is  to  be  answered  in  a  way  that  will 
preserve  the  best  interests  of  the  social  order.  It  will 


32          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

require  more  than  a  mere  official  edict  or  legal  enact- 
ment ordering  the  legitimatizing  of  all  children  born  out 
of  wedlock;  this,  indeed,  is  a  foolish  proceeding,  since 
it  secures  to  the  children  nothing  which  they  would  not 
obtain  without  it  except  in  unusual  cases.  The  remedy 
must  go  deeper;  it  must  secure  to  such  children  all  the 
benefits  of  opportunity  and  respect,  and  this  cannot  be 
done  until  the  attitude  of  society,  which  denies  them 
these  things,  is  changed.  And  this  is  the  most  difficult  of 
all  tasks,  as  well  as  the  most  dangerous.  Deep  seated 
prejudices,  moral  conceptions  with  centuries  of  time 
behind  them,  ideas  of  respectability  which  are  the  out- 
growth of  the  social  experience  of  all  ages,  the  instinc- 
tive sentiments  of  the  heart  to  which  violations  of  con- 
jugal confidence  are  repulsive — no  law  or  edict  can 
change  these  things.  And  what  if  they  are  changed? 
In  that  case  we  face  the  danger  of  plunging  the  world 
into  a  very  hell  of  crime  by  overthrowing  all  of  its 
moral  ideas.  Surely  the  best  interests  of  civilization 
will  not  be  served  by  the  cultivation  of  a  spirit  which  ex- 
cuses illegitimacy  and  looks  with  toleration  upon  the 
violation  of  the  seventh  commandment !  For  such  a  re- 
laxation could  not  be  a  temporary  expedient ;  our  ideas 
are  too  fundamental  to  be  changed  and  adjusted  at  will. 
In  either  case  the  social  problem  remains  serious. 

Another  aspect  of  this  social  problem  will  concern 
the  preponderance  in  the  number  of  the  women  over  the 
men.  This  is  a  favorite  subject  of  speculation,  and  the 
superficial  suggestions  for  its  adjustment  range  all  the 
way  from  "equal  rights  for  women,"  through  polygamy, 


IMMORALITY  DURING  THE  WAR        33 

to  the  complete  abolition  of  the  institution  of  marriage. 
But  it  is  not  nearly  so  serious  as  it  has  been  pictured. 
Its  economic  aspects  are,  indeed,  practically  negligible. 
In  this  war  the  women  have  shown  once  for  all  that  they 
are  abundantly  able  and  willing  to  take  care  of  them- 
selves, so  that  their  dependence  upon  the  opposite  sex 
for  support  is  a  thing  of  the  past.  In  the  matter  of 
morality  and  the  welfare  of  the  home  as  an  institution, 
however,  the  influence  of  the  disparity  of  one  sex  will  be 
felt.  It  will  not  be  a  good  thing,  either  for  the  women 
or  for  the  world,  to  throw  the  women  into  industry  by 
the  side  of  men,  giving  them  the  same  wages  and  offer- 
ing them  all  inducements  to  become  cogs  in  the  ma- 
chine of  industry.  That  thousands  of  them  are  forced 
to  turn  their  activities  into  this  channel  is  quite  true, 
and  in  such  cases  simple  justice  demands  that  they  be 
not  discriminated  against.  But  the  well-worn  argu- 
ment that  "woman's  place  is  in  the  home,"  however 
much  it  may  be  ridiculed  by  the  radicals,  is  after  all 
founded  upon  the  most  fundamental  conception  of  our 
social  life.  Whatever  adjustments  we  may  be  forced 
to  make  out  of  necessity,  the  fact  will  remain  that  the 
ideal  life  for  the  woman  is  in  the  home ;  from  this  stand- 
point we  will  digress  at  our  peril.  Now  the  prepon- 
derance of  women  over  the  men  will  necessarily  force 
us  to  make  a  wide  digression  from  this  ideal.  Many 
thousands  seem  to  be  barred  from  the  home  life  to 
which  they  are  attracted  by  instinct  and  by  training. 
But  an  industrial  occupation  cannot  change  human  na- 
ture nor  eradicate  the  deepest  instincts  of  the  life,  while 


34          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

the  association  and  competition  with  men  on  a  common 
basis  will  neither  give  the  men  a  deeper  respect  for  the 
women  nor  strengthen  their  moral  conscience.  Hence 
it  seems  certain  that  immorality  will  result  from  the 
new  situation. 

The  world  is  also  threatened  with  having  its  confi- 
dence in  and  respect  for  the  women  undermined.  It  is 
already  apparent  that  the  men  of  Europe  have  really  less 
respect  for  their  women  than  they  had  before  the  be- 
ginning of  hostilities.  They  are  very  proud  of  the  won- 
derful things  the  women  have  done,  and  of  this  they 
may  well  be  proud,  but  these  achievements  have  not 
deepened  their  respect — perhaps  it  would  be  better  to  say 
that  they  have  given  them  a  different  kind  of  respect. 
But  whether  the  difference  be  in  kind  or  degree,  it  seems 
plain  that  the  women  do  not  occupy  such  an  exalted 
place  in  the  moral  estimate  of  the  men  as  they  once 
held.  This  has  been  caused,  or  accompanied,  by  a  de- 
cline in  the  tone  of  the  women.  Their  familiar  asso- 
ciation with  the  men,  the  profligate  use  of  cigarettes, 
which  the  war  has  so  heightened  that  it  seems  well-nigh 
universal,  the  masculinity  which  comes  from  doing  the 
work  of  men,  the  increasing  carelessness  in  the  mat- 
ter of  personal  appearance— these  are  the  things  about 
which  the  men  are  complaining.  Then  in  connection 
with  this  there  is  the  awful  deluge  of  vice  which  has 
degraded  so  many  thousands  and  resulted  in  so  much 
disease.  This  situation  has  undoubtedly  caused  people 
to  lose  confidence  in  each  other.  There  is  a  confusion 
of  mind  which  partakes  of  doubt  and  suspicion.  Men 


IMMORALITY  DURING  THE  WAR        35 

do  not  know  whether  to  trust  the  women,  and  women  do 
not  know  whether  to  trust  the  men.  And  so  this  subtle 
attitude,  which  really  fastens  suspicion  upon  every- 
body, is  another  element  in  the  social  problem  of  the  fu- 
ture. It  will  prevent  reformation,  cause  more  immo- 
rality, hinder  marriage,  and  threaten  the  free  and 
righteous  relations  of  the  people. 

It  will  be  seen  at  once  that  all  of  these  phases  of  the 
situation  drive  straight  at  the  home.  And  this  is  the 
most  serious  element  in  it.  To  destroy  or  even  to  seri- 
ously injure  the  home  is  more  dangerous  than  to  have 
the  immorality,  the  disease,  and  the  illegitimacy 
amongst  us ;  and  when  we  have  the  immorality,  the  dis- 
ease, and  the  illegitimacy  present  with  us  and  combined 
in  an  attack  upon  the  hjome,  then  the  situation  is  peril- 
ous in  the  extreme.  And  that  is  exactly  the  case  at  the 
present  time.  The  most  discerning  minds  among  us 
have  known  for  many  years  that  we  were  drifting  into 
a  state  of  being  which  was  gradually  assailing  the  home. 
The  drift  of  population  to  the  cities,  the  laxity  of  our 
laws  concerning  divorce,  the  forcing  of  our  women  into 
industry,  their  oppression  by  the  capitalists,  the  modern 
feminist  movement  with  its  "votes  for  women"  slogan — 
each  of  these  things  has  struck  a  blow  at  the  home.  Then 
came  that  immoral  phase  of  socialism  which  openly  ad- 
vocated the  theory  of  the  home's  dissolution  and  urged 
the  repeal  of  our  notions  concerning  marriage.  These 
things  caused  many  people  to  be  exceedingly  anxious. 
If  matters  continued  for  a  few  more  years  in  the  same 
channel,  and  at  the  same  rate  of  progress,  soon  there 


36          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

would  be  no  home;  and  since  no  substitute  had  been 
provided  and  nothing  had  been  done  to  meet  a  situa- 
tion that  was  threatening  to  dethrone  all  our  morality 
and  place  the  world  in  a  condition  which  moral  senti- 
ment had  always  regarded  as  the  extreme  of  corruption, 
there  was  ample  cause  for  alarm.  And  now  on  top  of 
all  that  there  comes  this  war  and  brings  with  it  a  social 
problem  at  least  as  serious  as  any  the  world  has  ever 
faced  before,  a  problem  having  all  the  various  phases  we 
have  mentioned,  with  each  phase  leveling  its  attack  at 
what  was  left  of  the  home.  If  there  lives  a  man  whose 
highest  hope  for  the  future  welfare  of  the  world  lies  in 
the  moral  stability  of  the  home,  he  must  now  be  weep- 
ing his  heart  out  over  the  danger  which  threatens  this 
ancient  and  holy  institution.  And  it  will  behoove  him 
to  bestir  himself  for  a  solution  which  will  avert  such 
danger. 

One  naturally  turns  to  the  Church  for  something  of 
promise  in  such  a  crisis,  and  in  this  he  follows  a  right 
instinct;  for  the  Church  is  the  only  purely  moral  insti- 
tution on  earth,  and  it  stands  for  nothing  save  the  pres- 
ervation of  moral  values ;  the  home  has  always  been  its 
hobby,  and  rightly  so.  Therefore  if  the  Church  is  not 
prepared  to  offer  help  in  such  a  situation  as  that  which 
prevails  in  Europe  at  the  present  time,  we  would  be  at 
a  loss  to  know  where  to  turn.  But  when  one  asks  the 
European  Church  of  the  present  day  for  light  in  this 
moral  crisis,  he  meets  the  disappointment  of  his  life. 
For  the  Church  has  no  light;  she  is  not  seeking  any 
light;  she  seems  blissfully  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  any 


IMMORALITY  DURING  THE  WAR        37 

light  is  needed.  If  she  has  any,  it  is  snugly  hid  under 
the  bushel  of  a  smug  self-satisfaction  and  the  hollowest 
sort  of  a  simulated  patriotism  which  is  in  itself  a  sham. 
Surely  these  are  the  saddest  days  that  the  modern 
Church  ever  fell  upon.  She  preaches  enlistment  and  sets 
her  holy  sanction  on  the  cruelest  war  of  history.  She 
stirs  up  the  passions  of  the  people  to  fight  and  hates  her 
own  members  who  urge  conscientious  objections  to  bear- 
ing arms.  Her  pulpits  ring  with  bitter  denunciations 
of  sin,  but  it  is  always  German  sin.  She  pictures  the 
coming  of  a  golden  era,  but  according  to  the  will  of 
God,  that  era  must  be  achieved  by  blood  and  battle.  On 
these  things  the  Church  is  a  unit,  and  if  there  is  a  dis- 
senter his  voice  is  too  puny  to  be  heard.  For  once  at 
least,  the  European  Church  has  found  something  upon 
which  it  can  unite. 

And  all  the  while  vice  of  the  most  repulsive  sort 
flaunts  itself  before  the  very  doors  of  the  Church,  cor- 
rupting the  morals  of  the  people,  perverting  all  the 
righteous  conceptions  which  hold  together  the  social 
fabric,  and  nullifying  both  the  message  and  activity  of 
the  Church.  It  is  so  flagrant  that  its  presence  cannot 
be  unnoticed,  even  by  the  most  innocent.  The  Sunday 
School  children  and  the  clergymen  are  brought  into 
contact  with  it  if  they  walk  the  streets  or  possess  any 
knowledge  of  current  events.  And  yet  the  Church  says 
little  and  does  less.  The  clergy  seem  to  think  that  it 
would  be  treason  to  the  state  to  suggest  that  England  is 
corrupt ;  to  let  it  be  known  that  England  is  rotten  to  the 
core  and  does  not  care,  would  be  giving  aid  and  com- 


38          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

fort  to  the  enemy.  And  so  patriotism  of  the  sort  which 
consists  wholly  in  hating  the  national  enemy,  rather 
than  in  seeking  the  purification  of  the  motherland,  holds 
sway.  The  Church  still  "practices  respectability  and 
calls  it  holiness,"  and  she  keeps  herself  respectable  by 
turning  her  face  away  from  horrid  immoralities.  It  is 
like  the  ostrich  escaping  danger  by  hiding  his  head  in 
the  sand. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  war,  so  it  is  said,  Mr.  H.  G. 
Wells  spent  his  time  in  the  yard  of  a  village  Church, 
overwhelmed  by  the  calamity  which  had  overtaken  the 
world,  and  lost  in  thought.  He  reflected  that  one  of 
these  Churches  stood  in  each  hamlet  and  settlement  of 
the  civilized  world,  and  that  no  living  person  in  these 
lands  was  beyond  its  influence.  He  knew  that  the 
Church  stood  upon  the  platform  of  Christ,  urging  love 
and  goodness  as  against  hate  and  violence,  and  that 
upon  this  platform  it  had  come  to  be  the  most  respected, 
the  richest,  and  the  most  influential  of  all  human  forces. 
Then  the  question  came  upon  him  with  crushing  vio- 
lence :  Why  has  there  not  gone  out  from  this  institution 
an  influence  which  would  make  this  war  impossible? 
And  because  he  could  not  answer  this  question  Mr. 
Wells,  converted  by  the  war  into  a  man  keenly  alive  to 
the  spiritual  realities  of  the  universe,  became  confused 
in  his  thinking,  and  has  conjured  up  a  kind  of  religion 
which  even  he  does  not  understand  and  which  offers 
nothing  to  the  world. 

And  when  we  contemplate  the  situation  of  the  world 
in  regard  to  the  problem  of  vice,  we  are  forced  into  the 


IMMORALITY  DURING  THE  WAR       39 

same  position  in  which  Mr.  Wells  found  himself.  Why 
is  it  that  the  Church,  with  all  its  influence,  power,  mo- 
rality, and  respectability,  has  done  nothing  whatever  in 
checking  this  evil?  It  is  a  strange  thing  to  contem- 
plate, that  after  the  Church  has  been  operating  twenty 
centuries  this  form  of  wickedness  is  just  as  wide-spread 
and  flagrant  as  it  has  ever  been.  It  has  been  more  re- 
pulsive, perhaps,  but  I  doubt  if  there  ever  has  been  a 
moment  in  history  when  it  was  more  common  than  at  the 
present  moment.  Can  it  be  that  our  ideas  are  wrong  ? 
Are  we  disapproving  of  a  thing  which  is  such  a  funda- 
mental element  of  human  nature  that  it  cannot  be 
eradicated,  and  must  we  admit  our  mistake  and  reform 
our  morality  so  as  to  leave  room  for  indiscriminate 
licentiousness?  There  are  those  who  so  think,  and  it 
seems  that  we  must  either  adopt  this  attitude,  or  else  be- 
stir ourselves  to  the  application  of  our  morality  with 
greater  care  to  the  solution  of  this  age-long  problem. 

We  will  not  easily  believe  that  our  ideas  are  wrong, 
but  we  must  confess  that  we  have  hopelessly  failed  in 
applying  Christianity  to  the  problem  before  us.  And 
Christianity  has  failed  here  for  the  same  reason  that  it 
has  failed  in  other  departments  of  life — simply  because 
it  has  never  been  tried.  Let  us  frankly  admit  that  the 
Church  has  never  tried  to  solve  the  question  of  social 
vice;  she  has  not  created  any  paraphernalia,  she  has 
not  educated  her  people,  she  has  not  even  preached  upon 
the  subject.  In  her  way,  there  have  been  and  still  are 
mighty  obstacles  which  she  has  not  been  able  to  sur- 
mount. And  yet  most  of  these  obstacles  are  of  her  own 


40          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

making  and  the  task  of  unmaking  them  will  be  as  diffi- 
cult as  the  surmounting.  But  it  must  be  done.  Here  is 
one  of  the  clearest  challenges  which  the  Church  hears, 
and  in  responding  she  will  come  to  one  of  the  most  diffi- 
cult tasks  she  ever  attempted.  She  must  bestir  herself, 
and  she  must  do  it  immediately;  else  the  tidal  wave  of 
immorality  which  the  war  has  set  in  motion  will  en- 
gulf us. 

One  of  the  greatest  difficulties  between  the  Church 
and  her  task  has  been  her  inability  to  obtain  access  to 
the  people  she  would  help.  It  is  quite  true  that  the 
Church  has  made  little  attempt  in  this  direction,  but  her 
reticence  has  been  caused  largely  by  the  knowledge  that 
a  deep  gulf,  almost  impassable,  stretches  between  her 
and  the  denizens  of  the  underworld.  How  could  this  be 
bridged?  Street  preaching,  home  missionaries,  rescue 
schemes,  have  all  failed,  and  even  now  we  know  no  way 
by  which  a  minister  or  any  other  religious  worker  can 
get  in  personal  touch  with  depraved  women  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  impress  them  with  the  sense  of  their  sin. 
And  this  situation  has  been  rendered  more  difficult  by 
the  type  of  persons  who  have  taken  upon  themselves  the 
task  of  such  work.  Usually  they  have  been  men  or 
women  of  limited  intellectual  ability  and  with  absolute- 
ly no  grasp  upon  the  details  of  their  work;  they  have 
gone  into  the  slums  with  a  sentimental  evangelistic  mes- 
sage and  have  endeavored  to  convert  the  wayward  out 
of  hand.  But  they  have  had  no  conception  of  the  social 
problem  involved,  and  have  been  completely  baffled  at 
the  first  question,  "Then  what  shall  become  of  us  ?"  If 


IMMORALITY  DURING  THE  WAR       41 

the  underworld  is  to  be  evangelized,  men  and  women 
of  the  very  highest  attainments,  intellectually  and  spirit- 
ually, must  take  the  task  in  hand. 

And  at  the  outset,  the  Church  must  find  some  answer 
to  return  to  the  question,  "Then  what  shall  become  of 
us?"  The  saddest  fact  in  connection  with  the  whole 
problem  is  that  the  sinful  are  practically  barred  from 
reforming  and  taking  their  places  in  a  respectable  so- 
ciety. This  is  the  point  to  which  immediate  attention 
must  be  paid.  We  have  no  homes,  no  schools,  and  no 
other  agencies  to  which  these  people  can  be  taken  and 
where  they  can  be  rehabilitated.  And  the  situation 
would  be  bettered  but  little  even  if  we  had  such  agen- 
cies. To  be  known  as  the  inmate  of  such  an  institution 
is  as  bad  as  to  be  known  as  a  courtesan,  and  it  is  a  true 
instinct  which  prompts  most  women  to  avoid  them. 
What  is  needed  is  a  different  attitude  on  the  part  of 
society  toward  the  unfortunate.  Let  us  realize  at  once 
that  the  trouble  is  not  all  on  the  side  of  the  sinner. 
They  will  reform  in  large  numbers  the  moment  we  make 
up  our  minds  to  let  them  reform.  The  present  attitude 
of  society  is  the  thing  that  keeps  them  in  the  immoral 
life,  for  it  denies  them  employment,  opportunity  and 
respectability.  How,  then,  can  they  reform  ? 

Let  us  imagine  what  would  happen  in  the  average 
Church  if  a  woman  known  to  be  a  prostitute  should 
prostrate  herself  at  the  altar  and  confess  her  sins,  seek- 
ing and  obtaining  salvation  in  the  way  taught  by  the 
Church.  Then  what  ?  Could  she  take  her  place  in  the 
pew  as  a  member  of  the  Church  on  a  level  with  the  other 


42          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

Christians,  say,  on  the  level  of  the  man  who  was  re- 
sponsible for  her  ruin  ?  We  all  know  she  could  not.  If 
the  pastor  introduced  her  to  his  ladies'  society  she  would 
be  either  spurned  or  treated  with  such  reserve  that  life 
would  he  made  unbearable.  Not  a  woman  in  the  con- 
gregation would  give  her  employment  in  the  home  or  as- 
sociate with  her  upon  terms  of  equality.  No  man  would 
care  to  seek  her  company,  unless  indeed  he  were  seeking 
to  drag  her  down  again.  Such  a  woman  would  have  ab- 
solutely no  hope  because  the  Christian  people  in  the 
Church  would  allow  her  none.  And  at  the  same  time 
the  man  who  had  been  responsible  for  her  defection 
might  associate  with  the  best  people  of  the  community  at 
his  pleasure.  The  only  chance  for  a  reforming  sinner, 
if  she  be  a  woman,  is  to  live  a  life  of  deception,  to  hide 
her  past  from  all  the  world;  and  this  means  to  liv&  in 
constant  dread  and  haunted  by  a  sense  of  her  own  hypoc- 
risy. In  this  state  there  can  be  no  true  religion  and 
no  reformation.  But  the  fault  is  not  upon  the  sinner ; 
it  rests  at  the  door  of  the  respectable  people,  those  who 
profess  to  be  followers  of  the  Christ  who  said,  "Neither 
do  I  condemn  thee ;  go  and  sin  no  more." 

The  plea  is  made  that  such  an  attitude  is  necessary 
for  the  protection  of  society.  We  all  know  how  care- 
fully a  mother  should  guard  her  daughter  and  shield  her 
from  persons  and  influences  that  might  cause  her  ruin. 
But  is  it  really  true  that  we  prevent  immorality  by 
making  one  false  step  fatal  ?  We  have  notified  our  girls 
severely  enough  that  if  they  go  wrong  they  are  doomed 
forever,  but  the  notification  has  not  checked  the  sin.  It 


IMMORALITY  DURING  THE  WAR        43 

has  only  kept  the  girla  in  it  after  they  enter.  If  this  at- 
titude is  right,  in  Heaven's  name,  let  it  be  applied  im- 
partially to  men  and  women  alike.  At  a  state  legislature 
before  which  a  bill  f oi  the  establishment  of  a  segregated 
vice  district  was  pending  there  appeared  a  woman  who 
caused  the  introduction  of  a  similar  bill  applying  to  all 
men  frequenting  the  district ;  the  men  were  to  be  segre- 
gated and  subjected  to  all  the  restrictions-  which  the  bill 
ordered  for  the  women.  This  was  enough  to  prevent  the 
enactment  of  the  law.  Yet  there  was  no  reason  why  one 
would  not  be  as  just  and  as  safe  as  the  other. 

It  is  a  risky  thing  to  advise  the  lowering  of  the  stern 
attitude  against  fallen  women,  but  since  this  attitude 
is  the  only  thing  that  prevents  reformation  such  advice 
must  be  given.  This  is  not  to  say  that  the  social  evil 
must  be  regarded  lightly.  But  it  is  to  say  that  persons 
who  have  committed  this  sin  have  the  same  right  of 
pardon  as  other  sinners,  and  we  have  no  moral  justifica- 
tion for  erecting  a  barrier  against  them.  When  thieves, 
murderers,  and  highwaymen  are.  allowed  to  repent  and 
be  respectable,  we  have  no  right  to  deny  the  privilege  to 
the  women  who  fall.  They  should  be  forced  to  prove 
their  repentance  by  their  works  to  be  sure,  but  we  must 
open  the  way  for  them  to  regain  the  place  in  society 
which  they  forfeited  when  they  sinned.  If  we  do  not  do 
this,  then  let  us  no  longer  claim  to  be  the  representa- 
tives of  Christ  on  earth.  For  if  the  example  of  Christ 
teaches  us  anything,  it  surely  is  that  women  taken  in  sin 
have  His  utmost  respect  and  sympathy  and  kindness. 

But  how  shall  we  protect  our  homes?    There  is  but 


44          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

one  way,  and  this  is  educational.  The  lack  of  proper 
training  in  home,  and  school,  and  Church  on  this  sub- 
ject is  a  national  disgrace  to  us,  I  have  never  heard  a 
sermon  on  the  subject.  I  have  never  known  it  to  he 
mentioned  to  any  children  in  the  home.  I  know  of  no 
school  that  takes  notice  of  it  in  the  curriculum.  We  are 
leaving  our  young  people  to  their  own  devices,  letting 
them  grow  up  in-  ignorance  and  gain  all  their  informa- 
tion from  the  most  vicious  sources.  And  when  we  have 
thus  dealt  with  them,  we  place  the  eternal  brand  of 
shame  on  their  brows  at  the  first  false  step.  Then  we 
wrap  our  sanctimonious  cloak  of  respectability  about 
ourselves  and  ease*  our  consciences,  as  Pilate  washed 
from  his  hands  the.  blood  of  Christ.  And  yet  at  our  own 
door  crouches  the.  sin.  On  our  own  shoulders  rests  the 
responsibility.  At  our  own  hands  shall  the  blood  of  a 
thousand  erring  girls  be  required. 

Let  the  Church  give  some  of  the  thrfught  which  she 
now  expends  upon  foolish  intricacies  of  theology  to  this 
practical  and  urgent  problem  of  sin  and  salvation.  Let 
her  put  some  of  her  wealth  into  agencies  which  will  in- 
sure kindness  and  helpfulness  to  the  fallen.  Her  ora- 
tory ought  to  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  text:  "Let 
him  who  is  without  sin  cast  the  first  stone."  Eevelation 
should  claim  less  attention  and  Hosea  more.  Make  it 
known  that  there  is  a  gospel  for  those  who  fall,  and  that 
sympathy  and  comfort  in  the  truest  sense  await  such  at 
the  house  of  God.  Let  people  who  call  themselves 
Christian  display  the  spirit  of  Christ  to  those  who  are  in 
truth  their  sisters.  By  laws  and  state  regulation  we 


IMMORALITY  DURING  THE  WAR        45 

should  protect  our  girls  and  exterminate  the  breed  of 
men  who  speculate  in  their  blood,  either  openly  or 
through  the  medium  of  factories  and  department  stores. 
Then  give  us,  through  home,  school,  and  Church,  the 
most  comprehensive  and  far-reaching  educational  move- 
ment we  have  ever  seen,  so  thorough  that  no  child  who 
reaches  the  age  of  understanding  can  escape  its  influ- 
ence. When  we  have,  done  all  this,  we  will  be  in  a  fair 
way  to  grapple  seriously  with  the  social  evil. 


CHAPTER  II 

WHAT   DOES   IBELAND   INTEND? 

Since  all  the  statesmen,  diplomats,  and  publicists  of 
Europe  have  failed  to  arrive  at  a  solution  of  the  Irish 
question,  and  since  Irishmen  themselves  are  hopelessly 
divided  on  a  matter  with  which  they  are  perfectly  fa- 
miliar and  in  which  they  are  vitally  concerned,  it  ap- 
pears presumptuous  for  a  casual  observer,  and  he  a 
foreigner,  to  venture  any  word  upon  it.  But  even  sur- 
face impressions  have  a  certain  value,  especially  if  they 
are  arrived  at  without  any  previous  bias.  An  American 
is  perhaps  the  only  person,  from  that  standpoint,  who 
is  qualified  to  speak,  for  strict  impartiality  in  regard  to 
Ireland  scarcely  exists  anywhere  in  Europe.  Men  are 
either  pro-Irish  or  anti-Irish,  so  much  so  that  one  must 
read  with  care  any  of  the  innumerable  books  and  pam- 
phlets which  are  issued  in  regard  to  the  problem.  I  sup- 
pose that  more  passion,  prejudice,  enmity,  and  misrep- 
resentation have  come  about  in  this  connection  than  has 
been  true  of  any  problem  which  ever  vexed  the  public 
affairs  of  the  world. 

One  of  the  surprising  things  in  the  war  is  the  loyalty 
with  which  the  colonies  have  risen  to  the  defense  of  the 
British  Empire.  The  self-governing  dominions  adopted 

46 


WHAT  DOES  IRELAND  INTEND?        47 

conscription,  if  they  needed  it,  in  order  to  furnisH  a  full 
quota  of  troops,  and  we  have  seen  that  Britain  possessed 
a  solidarity  hitherto  undreamed  of.  The  southern  prov- 
inces of  Ireland  have  heen  the  only  outstanding  excep- 
tion to  this  rule;  and  the  fact  that  opposition  also  de- 
veloped in  the  Catholic  sections  of  Canada  and  Austra- 
lia serves  only  to  make  more  prominent  and  regrettahle 
the  defection  of  these  Irish.  For  this  has  emphasized 
the  religious  difficulty  which  rests  at  the  base  of  the 
Irish  question,  and  the  result  has  been  to  widen  the 
breach  already  existing  between  the  Protestant  and 
Catholic  elements  in  the  population  and  to  lay  the  Catho- 
lics open  to  the  charges  of  treason  and  disloyalty. 

As  an  American  sincerely  attached  to  the  principles 
that  governments  derive  their  just  powers  from  the  con- 
sent of  the  governed,  as  a  democrat  believing  that  the 
will  of  the  majority  should  rule,  and  as  a  Protestant 
without  prejudice  against  Rome  or  sympathy  with  anti- 
Catholic  propaganda,  I  visited  the  various  sections  of 
Ireland  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  first-hand  informa- 
tion and  personal  impressions.  And  I  came  away  with! 
the  opinion  that  the  attitude  of  southern  Irishmen  at 
the  present  time  is  altogether  impossible,  deplorable,  and 
unworthy.  Their  program,  if  carried  into  execution, 
will  mean  anarchy  in  the  Emerald  Isle,  it  will  threaten 
the  stability  of  the  British  Empire  and  all  that  is  thus 
represented,  it  will  mean  a  harking  back  for  many 
generations  in  that  section  of  the  world,  and  it  will  ul- 
timately mean  the  ruination  of  Ireland. 

Sinn  Eeinism  controls  the  south,  and  has  been  able 


48          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

to  unseat  the  ^Nationalists  in  Parliament ;  in  their  stead 
radicals  have  been  elected  who  refused  to  take  their 
seats,  and  even  boasted  in  the  campaigns  that  if  elected 
they  would  ignore  the  Commons.  The  result  is  that  the 
places  at  Westminster  have  been  vacated,  no  one  is  at 
hand  to  care  for  Irish  interests,  and  we  have  the  spec- 
tacle of  the  south  standing  apart  and  raving  over  prob- 
lems which  they  refuse  to  assist  in  settling.  But  this 
is  to  the  liking  of  Sinn  Fein,  and  the  great  majority  of 
the  southern  people  honestly  believe  that  by  such  a  proc- 
ess they  are  destined  to  obtain  the  independence  they 
crave. 

The  most  outstanding  feature  of  the  present  situation 
is  the  ardency  with  which  these  people  defend  their  posi- 
tion and  the  eagerness  with  which  they  seek  to  obtain 
support  from  Americans.  The  time-worn  arguments 
against  England,  all  of  them  arranged  without  any  his- 
torical sense  whatever,  have  been  mastered  by  men  and 
women  of  all  classes,  and  the  American  passing  through 
the  island  is  besieged  constantly  by  enthusiastic  apolo- 
gists. On  trains,  in  hotels,  on  the  streets,  in  jaunting 
carts,  he  is  beleaguered,  the  people  encompassing  the 
earth  to  make  one  proselyte  to  their  cause.  Members  of 
Parliament  and  other  dignitaries  are  everywhere  met 
with,  and  their  cordiality  is  always  the  precursor  of  the 
eternal  question,  "What  do  you  think  of  England's 
treatment  of  Ireland  ?"  The  cart  driver  cannot  take  one 
three  blocks  until  he  inquires,  "Why  should  we  fight  for 
England  2"  Loungers  in  hotel  lobbies  seek  out  the  trav- 
eler to  demand,  "What  does  America  think  of  the  Irish 


«?M 


IRELAND  &  CONSCRIPTION 


PROCLAMATIONS     OF    THE     MANSION     HOUSE     CONFERENCE     AND     THE     ROMAN 
CATHOLIC   CHURCH   URGING   THE   IRISH   TO  RESIST   CONSCRIPTION 


WHAT  DOES  IRELAND  INTEND?        49 

question  ?"  Shop-keepers  greet  the  American  genially, 
and  at  once  lead  np  to  the  query,  "If  Mr.  Wilson  believes 
in  self-determination  for  small  nationalities,  will  he  not 
right  our  wrongs  ?"  And  so  from  one  end  of  the  country 
to  another  the  poor  wayfarer  is  sought,  courted,  cajoled, 
flattered,  and  fed  on  a  diet  of  ancient  argument  which 
he  has  heard  from  his  youth  up.  And  a  great  propa- 
ganda machine  is  maintained  to  convince  America  that 
the  Irish  are  friendly  to  the  States, 

As  to  whether  they  really  are  friendly  to  us,  one  can 
only  judge  by  events.  The  city  of  Cork  has  been  placed 
"out  of  bounds"  to  American  sailors  because  of  the  riots 
and  brawls,  resulting  in  actual  bloodshed,  which  their 
presence  in  the  city  caused.  Even  at  Queenstown  I  was 
informed  that  Americans  riding  bicycles  along  the  roads 
had  been  stoned  until  they  were  forced  to  discontinue 
the  exercise.  When  I  arrived  at  Cork  I  was  met  by  a 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  secretary  in  civilian  clothing  who  explained 
that  he  had  discarded  his  uniform  to  avoid  trouble ;  in 
London  I  was  even  advised  to  lay  aside  my  uniform  be- 
fore venturing  into  Ireland.  On  one  occasion  several 
men  in  khaki,  with  U.  S.  on  their  collars,  deemed  it  the 
part  of  wisdom  to  remain  in  the  hotel  during  the  even- 
ing and  were  subjected  to  taunts  through  the  windows 
from  the  young  Irishmen  on  the  streets.  A  religious 
director  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  told 
me  that  he  had  been  attacked  on  the  street,  and  soon  his 
story  was  verified  in  my  own  experience. 

I  reached  Cork  one  evening  when  the  atmosphere  was 
surcharged  with  the  spirit  of  rebellion.  A  great  Sinn 


50          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  [THE  WAR 

Fein  street  meeting  had  been  scheduled  as  a  demonstra- 
tion against  England,  a  large  speakers'  platform  had 
been  erected  in  the  Grand  Parade,  and  the  young  Irish- 
men had  flocked  in  from  the  surrounding  country  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  anti-English  seance.  The  meeting  had, 
however,  been  dissolved  by  order  of  the  commander  of 
the  British  garrison,  the  streets  were  guarded  by  con- 
stables with  carbines,  and  the  soldiers  were  patrolling 
with  fixed  bayonets;  everywhere  were  groups  of  Sinn 
Eeiners,  sullen,  angry,  muttering  under  their  breath. 
As  I  passed  as  quietly  as  possible  down  the  street  I  could 
hear  remarks  issuing  from  the  various  knots  of  young- 
sters: "There  is  a  damned  Yankee,"  "damned  Ameri- 
can," and  the  like.  Suddenly  a  man  emerged  from  a 
group,  lifted  a  small  cane,  and  struck  me  violently  across 
the  face,  while  his  action  was  greeted  by  roars  and 
shouts  of  laughter  from  his  compatriots. 

These  actions  indicate  that  the  love  of  Sinn  Fein  for 
our  country  is  not  so  wholehearted  as  it  might  be,  and 
yet  it  would  be  an  injustice  to  say  that  they  are  repre- 
sentative of  the  general  sentiment  prevailing  among  the 
more  stable  citizenship.  At  heart  these  people  under- 
stand that  they  have  no  friends  among  the  Allies  except 
America,  and  for  the  most  part  they  are  anxious  to  cul- 
tivate this  friendship  for  ulterior  reasons;  but  their 
hatred  of  England  is  so  deep,  their  desire  to  see  her  hu- 
miliated so  intense,  that  among  the  young  Irishmen,  who 
constitute  the  strength  of  Sinn  Fein,  it  often  expresses 
itself  in  hostility  towards  all  those  who  are  assisting  in 


WHAT  DOES  IRELAND  INTEND?         51 

saving  England  from  the  defeat  which  is  so  cordially 
wished  her. 

That  this  element  is  pro-German  and  traitorous  to  the 
cause  for  which  we  contended  there  can  be  little  doubt. 
The  British  Government  has  apprehended  them  in  many 
plots  with  the  enemy,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  common  con- 
versation on  the  streets  of  Irish  towns  that  the  German 
submarines  are  making  regular  attempts  to  land  ammu- 
nition and  machine  guns  on  Irish  soil.  Although  I  have 
tried  repeatedly,  I  was  never  once  able  to  induce  a  Sinn 
Feiner,  or  any  other  southerner,  for  that  matter,  to 
speak  one  word  in  condemnation  of  Germany.  When 
in  the  midst  of  vehement  strictures  against  England  I 
have  injected  the  question,  "Would  you  prefer  the  dom- 
ination of  Germany?"  the  result  has  been  a  quiet  and 
hesitating  "JNb,"  or  a  total  silence;  in  either  case  the 
speaker  refused  to  discuss  the  matter.  Certain  of  them, 
however,  have  gone  so  far  as  to  declare  that  "German 
rule  could  be  no  worse  than  English  at  any  rate." 

This  attitude  of  mind  prevailing  everywhere  in  the 
south,  while  it  can  hardly  be  explained,  creates  a  dis- 
tinct atmosphere  of  hostility  which  can  be  felt  most  un- 
comfortably by  the  pro-ally  traveler.  It  is  constantly 
impressed  upon  him  that  there  is  something  wrong  with 
this  country,  that  sedition  and  rebellion  are  in  the  very 
air,  that  respect  for  law  and  order  has  reached  a  low 
ebb.  It  is,  of  course,  a  matter  of  common  knowledge 
that  Sinn  Fein  is  bending  heaven  and  earth  to  arm  it- 
self, in  spite  of  the  law  against  drilling  and  keeping 
arms.  Burglary  always  follows  a  report  that  a  citizen 


52          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

has  a  rifle  or  pistol  in  liis  house,  and  from  the  British 
garrison  on  Bere  Island,  as  well  as  from  the  American 
submarine  base  and  kite  balloon  station  at  Castletown 
Bere,  the  signal  rockets  and  lights  can  be  seen  issu- 
ing from  the  hills  as  Sinn  Fein  calls  her  devotees  to- 
gether or  flashes  communications  to  enemy  submarines. 
One  day  I  was  standing  on  the  pier  at  Castletown  Bere 
when  a  man  wearing  a  green  hat  appeared ;  the  hangers- 
on  greeted  him  warmly  and  he  remarked,  "Remember 
tha  green,  Friday  night" ;  whereupon  his  hearers  all  sa- 
luted respectfully  and  the  man  rode  away  on  a  bicycle. 
The  incident  was  significant  of  the  plans  and  the  organi- 
zation of  Sinn  Fein  in  this  remote  section  of  Ireland. 
When  the  present  war  broke  out  there  were,  of  course, 
a  large  number  of  Irishmen  who  desired  heartily  to  see 
England  decisively  defeated  and  humbled,  and  they  saw 
in  such  a  possibility  the  "liberation"  of  their  island. 
Germany  believed  that  Ireland  was  ripe  for  a  rebellion 
and  her  propaganda  was  set  to  work  in  an  effort  to  hasten 
that  event,  an  effort  which  bore  abundant  fruit  in  the 
Easter  rebellion.  This  fiasco  settled,  and  in  a  manner 
by  no  means  as  harsh  as  the  Irish  agitators  would  have 
us  believe,  England  was  in  a  position  to  control  the 
turbulent  people  if  she  had  been  able  to  adopt  a  definite 
and  firm  Irish  policy.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  England 
had  no  Irish  policy,  and  has  never  had.  By  using  pa- 
cific methods  with  a  people  who  have  always  refused  to 
be  pacified,  she  permitted,  and  even  encouraged,  the  for- 
mation of  other  plots  and  the  general  dissatisfaction  of 
the  population.  The  Irish  constantly  complain  against 


WHAT  DOES  IRELAND  INTEND?         53 

the  cruelty  of  England  and  the  oppression  to  which,  they 
are  subjected  at  the  hands  of  that  power,  but  most 
disinterested  people  who  visit  Ireland  are  almost  amazed 
at  the  laxity  of  her  administration  of  the  Defense  of  the 
Realm  acts  and  at  the  insults  and  seditious  encourage- 
ments which  she  tolerates.  When  we  in  easy-going  and 
tolerant  America  were  arresting  men  for  remarking  that 
the  Red  Cross  was  a  "fake,"  England  was  permit- 
ting Irish  people  and  newspapers  to  call  the  flag  a 
''floor-mat,"  stage  giant  demonstrations  against  the 
Empire  and  the  war,  and  talk  openly  in  severe  denun- 
ciation of  the  government  of  which  they  are  a  part,  even 
to  the  limit  of  declaring  in  open  parliament  that  a  re- 
bellion would  be  advised  if  the  leaders  could  persuade 
themselves  that  it  would  be  successful.  In  the  Grand 
Parade  in  Cork  there  stands  a  great  monument  bearing 
the  names  of  "the  martyr  vanguard,"  mostly  men  who 
have  been  executed  for  treason,  and  an  inscription  urg- 
ing young  Irishmen  to  follow  their  example;  and  in  the 
great  Dublin  cemetery  one  of  the  epitaphs  reads  thus: 
"I  have  been  adjudged  guilty  of  treason.  Treason  is  a 
foul  crime.  Dante  places  traitors  in  the  ninth  circle  of 
hell,  I  believe  the  lowest  circle.  But  what  kind  of  trai- 
tors are  these?  Traitors  against  country,  kindred,  and 
benefactors.  But  England  is  not  my  country  and  I  have 
betrayed  no  friend.  I  leave  the  matter  there."  I  doubt 
if  there  is  a  land  on  earth  where  such  open  sedition 
would  be  tolerated  as  is  carried  on  daily  in  Ireland. 

Great  Britain  believes  that  Ireland  would  be  pacified 
somewhat  if  she  were  placed  on  the  footing  with  other 


54          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  [THE  WAR 

self-governing  dominions,  and  thus  the  home  rule  and 
conscription  bills  were  prepared.  But  the  result  was  an 
explosion  more  violent  than  any  that  had  occurred 
hitherto.  Sinn  Fein  did  not  desire  and  would  not  have 
Home  Bule,  Ulster  of  course  set  her  face  against  it,  and 
conscription  was  opposed  like  the  plague.  All  over  the 
south  the  anger  of  the  people  waxed  hot,  and  that  section 
became  a  seething  caldron  of  disaffection  and  sedition. 
The  population  resolved  to  resist  unto  the  last  limit,  and 
they  pledged  themselves,  men  and  women  alike,  to  op- 
pose conscription  by  all  the  means  at  their  disposal. 
Anti-conscription  pledges  were  signed  everywhere,  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  affixing  their  signatures  and  display- 
ing the  little  white  buttons  on  their  lapels  as  a  token 
of  their  resistance.  There  were  meetings,  committees, 
plots,  and  movements  in  every  city,  town,  and  village  to 
crystallize  sentiment  and  weld  together  the  opposition. 
The  observer  could  not  escape  the  knowledge  that  south- 
ern Ireland  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  war  or 
allow  the  people  to  be  conscripted.  The  young  men  of 
military  age  swarmed  the  streets  of  the  larger  towns  by 
multiplied  thousands,  showing  by  their  very  numbers 
what  Ireland  could  do  in  the  way  of  supplying  man 
power  to  the  armies  if  she  only  would. 

And  now  for  the  first  time  the  Church  came  openly  to 
the  front  and  assumed  the  leadership  of  the  anti-British 
crusade.  The  Church,  as  is  well  known,  had  always  been 
behind  the  sentiment  against  the  Empire,  but  hitherto 
her  influence  had  been  more  or  less  veiled ;  now  it  is  open 
and  avowed.  The  priests  head  the  committees,  issue  the 


WHAT  DOES  IRELAND  INTEND?         155 

propaganda  literature,  handle  the  funds  of  rebellion, 
make  the  political  speeches,  and  influence  the  people  to 
sign  the  anti-conscription  pledges.  These  pledges  are 
always  signed  in  the  Churches  after  special  masses,  and 
fo  each  town  there  are  great  posters  urging  the  people 
to  attend  the  masses  and  sign  the  pledges.  This  is  the 
text  of  the  pledge  and  the  inscription  on  the  buttons: 
"Denying  the  right  of  the  British  Government  to  enforce 
compulsory  service  in  this  country,  we  pledge  ourselves 
solemnly  to  one  another  to  resist  Conscription  by  the 
most  effective  means  at  our  disposal."  The  women  wear 
buttons  which  pledge  them  to  refuse  to  take  the  place  of 
any  person  conscripted  and  to  assist  the  families  of  those 
who  may  suffer  through  resistance. 

The  hierarchy  made  the  following  pronouncement, 
which  was  signed  by  Cardinal  Logue  and  all  the  bishops 
and  archbishops  of  Ireland:  "The  Bishops  direct  the 
clergy  to  celebrate  a  public  Mass  of  intercession  on  next 
Sunday  in  every  Church  in  Ireland  to  avert  the  scourge 
of  conscription  with  which  Ireland  is  now  threatened. 
They  further  direct  that  an  announcement  be  made  at 
every  public  Mass  on  Sunday  next  of  a  public  meeting 
to  be  held  on  that  day  at  an  hour  and  place  to  be  speci- 
fied in  the  announcement,  for  the  purpose  of  administer- 
ing the  following  pledge  against  compulsory  conscription 
in  Ireland:  'Denying  the  right  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment to  enforce  compulsory  service  in  this  country,  we 
pledge  ourselves  solemnly  to  one  another  to  resist  con- 
scription by  the  most  effective  means  at  our  disposal.' 
The  clergy  are  also  requested  by  the  Bishops  to  announce 


56          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

on  Sunday  next  that  a  collection  will  be  held  at  an  early 
suitable  date  outside  the  Church  gates  for  the  purpose  of 
supplying  means  to  resist  the  imposition  of  compulsory 
military  service. 

"An  attempt  is  being  made  to  force  conscription  upon 
Ireland  against  the  will  of  the  Irish  nation  and  in  de- 
fiance of  the  protests  of  its  leaders.  In  view  especially 
of  the  historic  relations  between  the  two  countries  from 
the  very  beginning  up  to  the  present  moment,  we  con- 
sider that  conscription  forced  in  this  way  upon  Ireland 
is  an  oppressive  and  inhuman  law,  which  the  Irish  peo- 
ple have  a  right  to  resist  by  all  the  means  that  are  con- 
sonant with  the  law  of  God.  We  wish  to  remind  our 
people  that  there  is  a  higher  Power  which  controls  the 
affairs  of  men.  They  have  in  their  hands  the  means 
of  conciliating  that  Power  by  strict  adherence  to  the 
Divine  law,  by  more  earnest  attention  to  their  religious 
duties,  and  by  fervent  and  persevering  prayer.  In  order 
to  secure  the  aid  of  the  Holy  Mother  of  God,  who 
shielded  our  people  in  the  days  of  their  greatest  trials, 
we  have  already  sanctioned  a  National  Novena  in  hon- 
or of  Our  Lady  of  Lourdes,  commencing  on  the  3rd 
May,  to  secure  general  and  domestic  peace.  We  also 
exhort  the  heads  of  families  to  have  the  Rosary  recited 
every  evening  with  the  intention  of  protecting  the  spir- 
itual and  temporal  welfare  of  our  beloved  country,  and 
bringing  us  safely  through  this  crisis  of  unparalleled 
gravity." 

This  action  on  the  part  of  the  hierarchy  followed  the 
famous  Mansion  House  Conference,  attended  by  Irish 


WHAT  DOES  IRELAND  INTEND?        57 

leaders  and  Members  of  Parliament  and  presided  over  by 
the  Lord  Mayor  of  Dublin.  This  Conference  started  the 
opposition  to  conscription  by  issuing  the  following  state- 
ment :  "Taking  our  stand  on  Ireland's  separate  and  dis- 
tinct nationhood,  and  affirming  the  principle  of  liberty, 
that  Governments  of  nations  derive  their  just  powers 
from  the  consent  of  the  governed,  we  deny  the  right  of 
the  British  Government  or  any  external  authority  to  im- 
pose compulsory  military  service  in  Ireland  against  the 
clearly  expressed  will  of  the  Irish  people.  The  passing 
of  the  Conscription  Bill  by  the  British  House  of  Com- 
mons must  be  regarded  as  a  declaration  of  war  on  the 
Irish  nation.  The  alternative  to  accepting  it  as  such  is 
to  surrender  our  liberties  and  to  acknowledge  ourselves 
slaves.  It  is  in  direct  violation  of  the  rights  of  small 
nationalities  to  self-determination,  which  even  the  Prime 
Minister  of  England — now  preparing  to  employ  naked 
militarism  and  force  his  Act  upon  Ireland — himself 
officially  announced  as  an  essential  condition  for  peace 
at  the  Peace  Conference.  The  attempt  to  enforce  it  will 
be  an  unwarrantable  aggression,  which  we  call  upon  all 
Irishmen  to  resist  by  the  most  effective  means  at  their 
disposal." 

These  pronouncements  are  sufficient  indications  of  the 
light  in  which  the  Irish  regard  conscription  and  the 
lengths  to  which  they  are  determined  to  go  in  preventing 
its  operation.  The  Lord  Mayor  of  Dublin  applied  for 
passports  to  visit  America  in  order  to  lay  his  case  be- 
fore the  President,  and  he  was  assured  that  such  pass- 
ports would  be  granted  him ;  he  refused,  however,  to  per- 


58          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

mit  the  proper  authorities  to  examine  the  documents 
he  was  carrying  and  on  this  account  the  journey  was 
not  made.  I  was  frequently  asked  about  the  attitude  of 
America.  "Are  you  coming  here  to  shoot  us  down  also  ?" 
was  a  form  which  the  query  often  took.  And  my  reply 
always  was  the  same :  "I  do  not  think  America  will  have 
any  part  in  the  policing  of  Ireland.  There  has  always 
existed  in  our  country  a  great  sympathy  for  the  Irish 
cause,  but  I  am  quite  sure  the  President  and  people  will 
not  look  kindly  upon  any  attempts  or  movements  which 
are  calculated  to  weaken  England's  efforts  in  the  win- 
ning of  the  war." 

I  was  in  Ireland  during  the  spirited  campaign  in 
East  Cavan  between  a  nationalist  candidate  and  Arthur 
Griffith,  a  Sinn  Feiner  who  was  at  that  time  in  Birming- 
ham prison  on  a  charge  of  high  treason.  The  Sinn  Fein 
cause  was  being  represented  by  various  priests,  and  the 
result  was  a  victory  for  Griffith,  who  gained  strength  by 
virtue  of  his  prison  experience,  by  a  large  majority.  At 
this  time  excitement  was  running  high.  The  proclama- 
tion of  Lord  French  calling  for  50,000  volunteers  in  lieu 
of  conscription  was  referred  to  in  the  columns  of  "Young 
Ireland"  as  "the  magnificent  French  farce,"  under  a 
heading  "Imperial  Grand  Theatre  of  Varieties."  In  re- 
gard to  the  call  for  the  50,000,  the  following  is  a  char- 
acteristic editorial  from  the  Sinn  Fein  press: 

"Like  the  Irish  Times,  we  are  certainly  astonished 
at  the  very  reasonable  demand  made  by  the  Military 
Governor.and  General  Governor  of  Ireland.  Fifty  thou- 
sand !  Sure,  boys,  we  would  never  miss  that  number  of 


WHAT  DOES  IRELAND  INTEND?         59 

fly-boys  out  of  Ireland.  Their  fathers  would  still  be  here 
to  contribute  the  2,000  or  3,000  required  monthly  as 
from  the  first  of  October,  1918.  We  would,  however,  ad- 
vise Governor  French  not  to  expect  too  many  of  these 
fly-boys  till  about  the  day  before  the  entries  close,  as 
they  would  not  think  of  joining  up  in  the  middle  of  the 
season.  They  are  getting  nice  and  tanned  at  our  seaside 
resorts,  and,  when  caught,  they  will,  we  have  no  doubt, 
make  good  soldiers.  Their  papas,  who  only  arrived 
over  here  recently,  will  be  ready  when  their  time  comes. 
The  younger  fry  are  making  themselves  fit  by  constant 
exercise.  As  you  will  understand,  hide  and  seek  is  a 
good  fat-reducing  medium,  and,  as  most  of  them  are 
continually  'on  the  run,'  they  will  prove  just  the  stuff 
you  want,  Jackie.  The  only  request  which  they  are 
likely  to  make  is  that  they  will  be  allowed  to  retain, 
when  on  more  active  service,  their  distinctive  national 
costume — broad  trousers  and  hipped  coats.  They  are 
looking  after  the  alteration  of  the  facial  and  nasal  de- 
partments themselves.  When  you  get  these  50,000  and 
the  5,000,000  American  troops,  you  will  have  about  5,- 
000,000  good  fighting  men.  If  that  is  not  enough,  we 
know  where  more  can  be  got.  We  append  first  lists : — 

Irish  Times  Office : 

Editorial — 9  likely,  2  fit. 

Works — Many  probables  and  fit. 

Offices— 9  likely,  2  fit. 

Eeporters — 4  likely,  4  fit. 

Young  Ireland  Offic3: 

Editorial — None  likely,  all  fit. 


60          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

Works — None  likely,  all  fit. 

Offices — None  likely,  all  fit. 

Reporters — None  likely,  all  fit. 

(Exemption  claimed  owing  to  the  fact  that  theirs  is 
work  of  national  importance). 

Nationality  Offices: 

(Same  remarks  as  Young  Ireland.^) 

Freeman's  Journal  Offices: 

Editorial— 6  likely. 

(On  government  work.) 

Bariba — 1  likely. 

(Cannot  be  spared,  although  as  a  fly-hoy  he  should  go 
with  the  first  50,000.) 

Letter  writers — 20  likely. 

Works— 20  likely. 

Offices— 20  likely. 

Reporters — 5  likely. 

(Grand  total— 82  prohahles.)" 

Perhaps  one  or  two  other  quotations  from  Sinn  Fein 
journals,  picked  up  at  random,  will  he  illuminating. 
One  paper  thus  observes:  "Discovering  plots  is  seem- 
ingly becoming  an  international  (All-lies  only)  pastime. 
In  France  it  is  known  as  'Boloism/  in  England  it  is,  we 
believe,  called  the  'Black  Book,  or  the  47,000,'  and 
America  calls  it  'Treason/  and,  although  enthusiasm 
dropped  in  the  'land  of  the  free'  after  Police  Inspector 
Flynn  was  deposed,  it  is  now  revived  with  a  vengeance. 
Mr.  Jeremiah  O'Leary  and  five  others  have  been  in- 
dicted by  the  Federal  Grand  Jury  on  charges  of  Trea- 
Bon." 


WHAT  DOES  IRELAND  INTEND?         61 

Everywhere  the  most  strenuous  means  are  adopted  to 
make  the  opposition  to  conscription  and  England  unani- 
mous. For  example,  when  several  leaders  were  arrested 
for  treasonable  communications  and  plots  with  the  en- 
emy, Sinn  Fein  demanded  that  all  Ireland  denounce 
these  arrests.  The  Clogheen  Guardians  declined  to  pass 
the  required  resolution,  and  at  once  a  convention  was 
held  at  Burntcour,  which  forced  two  of  the  Guardians 
to'  resign  and  unanimously  called  on  the  others  to  do 
likewise.  When  Sinn  Fein  was  declared  to  be  a  danger- 
ous organization  the  Armagh  Asylum  Committee  dis- 
missed a  store-keeper  who  was  head  of  the  local  cumann, 
and  the  action  was  brought  before  every  Sinn  Fein  club 
in  the  country,  the  members  "being  resolved  to  carry 
on  the  movement,  as  per  instructions  from  the  Executive 
in  Dublin,  regardless  of  any  interference  by  the  authori- 
ties." When  the  chairman  of  the  Mullingar  Board  of 
Guardians  was  asked  to  resign  his  position  as  Justice  of 
the  Peace  as  a  protest  against  conscription  he  declined, 
and  immediately  the  board  elected  to  succeed  him  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Westmeath  Sinn  Fein  Chaimhairle  Ceann- 
tair.  And  the  following  item  of  news  sheds  an  inter- 
esting light  on  Sinn  Fein  methods  also :  "Messrs.  Thomas 
Hickey,  Lisgibbon,  and  D.  O'Brien,  Golden,  received  a 
hearty  welcome  on  their  return  home  after  two  months' 
imprisonment  in  Belfast  for  drilling  the  local  Volun- 
teers. They  were  met  at  the  local  station  by  a  band  and 
an  enormous  crowd,  who  escorted  them  to  their  homes." 

Now  what  does  Ireland  intend?  Under  the  leader- 
ship of  Sinn  Fein  she  plans  for  complete  and  absolute 


62          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

independence,  the  making  of  Ireland  into  a  separate  He- 
public.  This  Celtic  I.  W.  W.,  this  Irish  Bolsheviki,  will 
have  no  more  to  do  with  Home  Rulers  than  she  will  with 
Ulster- — the  principles  of  both  Nationalist  and  Unionist 
are  alike  rejected.  In  the  attainment  of  their  ambitions 
they  do  not  ask  any  concessions  or  favors  from  Great 
Britain;  the  Sinn  Eein  members  of  Parliament  refuse 
to  take  their  seats  at  Westminster,  and  they  maintain  an 
attitude  of  aloofness  from  the  motherland.  They  are  at 
war  with  Great  Britain,  because  the  Mansion  House 
Conference  decreed  that  the  conscription  act  was  a  dec- 
laration of  hostilities.  They  go  over  the  head  of  Parlia- 
ment and  look  to  the  Peace  Conference  for  the  righting 
of  their  wrongs  and  the  establishment  of  the  republic  of 
their  dreams.  Drawing  inspiration  from  the  history  and 
literature  of  their  past,  rejecting  even  the  English  lan- 
guage in  so  far  as  possible,  they  hope  to  appear  at  the 
conference  table  as  a  distinct  and  much-oppressed  na- 
tionality clamoring  for  liberation.  And  on  the  Peace 
Conference  they  pin  all  their  ho^es.  Thus  the  matter 
is  summed  up  by  "Young  Ireland":  "When  we  said 
'nation'  did  we  mean  a  shire  of  England ;  did  we  mean 
a  colony  of  the  British  Empire;  did  we  mean  that  the 
Irish  people  would  be  much  obliged  to  their  oppressors 
for  allowing  them  to  contribute  towards  their  own  deg- 
radation? Is  a  country  that  is  content  to  pick  up  the 
crumbs  of  justice  which  may  fall  from  the  tables  of  her 
oppressor  worthy  of  the  honor  of  nationhood?  What 
respect  can  a  bully  have  for  a  cringing  and  fawning 
slave?  'Down  on  your  knees,  you  dog/  sums  up  the 


WHAT  DOES  IRELAND  INTEND?        63 

answer  Ireland  may  expect  to  get  for  degrading  herself 
by  crawling  through  the  filth  of  Westminster  to  kiss 
the  feet  of  England's  Prime  Minister.  If  Ireland  is  a 
nation  she  can  demand  her  rights  at  the  Peace  Con- 
ference. She  cannot  be  content  to  remain  in  slavery." 

Supporting  the  plea  for  independence  there  is  put  for- 
ward a  series  of  figures  designed  to  prove  that  such  a 
republic  as  Sinn  Fein  proposes  could  be  self-support- 
ing. This  has  always  been  the  difficulty  encountered  by 
the  radicals,  it  having  been  a  foregone  conclusion  that 
without  Ulster,  which  shows  no  disposition  to  enter  a 
republic  and  which  possesses  the  wealth  of  Ireland,  the 
new  government  could  not  maintain  itself;  therefore 
Sinn  Fein  has  always  coupled  with  a  demand  for  inde- 
pendence a  further  demand  that  England  grant  to  Ire- 
land a  subsidy  sufficient  to  pay  the  bills  for  a  number  of 
years.  There  now  seems  a  disposition  to  abandon  the 
latter  phase  of  the  matter,  the  leaders  realizing  its  fu- 
tility and  at  the  same  time  becoming  convinced  that  they 
can  support  themselves.  Their  figures  have  been  drawn 
up  to  show  that  Ireland  has  more  square  miles  of  ter- 
ritory than  either  Belgium,  Holland,  Denmark,  or 
Switzerland,  and  about  the  same  as  Serbia,  Greece,  Por- 
tugal, and  Bulgaria ;  in  the  matter  of  population  she  is 
larger  than  Norway,  Denmark,  and  Switzerland,  and 
about  the  same  in  population  as  Serbia,  Bulgaria,  and 
Greece.  It  is  pointed  out  that  "Dublin  Castle"  rule  cost 
Ireland  last  year  23,766,000  pounds,  while  Serbia, 
Greece,  Switzerland,  Bulgaria,  Norway,  and  Denmark 
supported  their  governments  at  a  much  smaller  expense. 


64          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

"Liberty  costs  only  32s.  per  head  in  Bulgaria,  35s.  in 
Serbia,  37s.  in  Switzerland,  40s.  in  Greece,  51s.  in 
Sweden,  55s.  in  Portugal,  and  60s.  in  Norway;  in  Ire- 
land subjection  and  corruption  cost  us  5  pounds  8  shil- 
lings per  head."  "Judged  by  any  standard  we  may 
select,  Ireland  is  admirably  fitted  for  freedom.  She  is 
large  enough,  populous  enough,  and  rich  enough.  For  the 
money  we  paid  England  .last  year  we  could  run  the  gov- 
ernment business  of  Bulgaria,  Norway,  and  Denmark, 
paying  for  all  their  police,  soldiers,  ships,  and  guns.  Is 
not  Ireland  fooled  and  robbed  long  enough  ?  The  hour 
for  freedom  and  the  Irish  Eepublic  has  struck."  It  is 
unnecessary  to  discuss  the  correctness  of  these  statistics 
or  to  inquire  how  they  were  obtained;  to  demonstrate 
their  uselessness  it  is  necessary  only  to  point  out  that  the 
statisticians  quietly  take  it  for  granted  that  Ulster,  the 
dominating  factor  in  the  matter  of  wealth  and  quite  in- 
fluential in  population  and  territory,  will  enter  heartily 
into  the  new  scheme.  But  this  is  by  no  means  the  case, 
for  Ulster  will  have  none  of  it ;  and  she  stands  ready  to 
prove  at  any  time  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  the  south 
that  she  cannot  be  coerced. 

Ireland  has  appeared  clamoring  at  the  Peace  Confer- 
ence, and  she  has  behind  her  the  influence  of  the  Vati- 
can. The  whole  course  of  recent  events  tends  to  con- 
firm this  view.  In  every  country  where  Irish  propa- 
ganda is  carried  on,  in  America  as  well  as  in  other 
lands,  the  movement  is  backed  by  the  hierarchy  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  and  headed  by  the  adherents 
and  priests  of  that  communion;  this  fact  makes  it  all 


WHAT  DOES  IRELAND  INTEND?         65 

the  more  deplorable  that  the  United  States  should  tol- 
erate an  agitation  which  constantly  endeavors  to  en- 
gender bitterness  toward  the  nation  which  should  be 
our  best  friend — the  British  Empire.  To  those  who  have 
knowledge  of  the  methods  of  the  See  of  Rome  it  appears 
inconceivable  that  the  Irish  clergy  would  have  launched 
on  such  a  far-flung  program  of  political  aspiration  with- 
out the  consent  of  the  Pope,  and  if  that  consent  were 
given  we  may  well  inquire  into  the  meaning  of  it.  Does 
the  Pope  desire  Ireland  as  another  papal  state?  Will 
Ireland  consent  to  be  so  placed  ?  That  His  Holiness  de- 
sires a  seat  free  from  the  sovereignty  of  any  other  power 
is  well  known,  and  Ireland  is  the  only  place  on  earth 
where  his  occupancy  would  meet  with  the  approval  of 
the  population.  That  the  Irishmen  of  the  south  would 
accept  his  lordship  there  seems  not  the  slightest  doubt 
— that  Ulster  would  not,  goes  without  saying.  But  since 
Ulster  cannot  be  included  in  any  nationalistic  scheme 
without  her  protest,  it  may  be  that  some  scheme  of  par- 
ition  is  considered. 

I  say  one  may  well  believe  that  both  the  Pope  and  the 
southern  Irish  have  some  such  plan  in  consideration. 
Yet  it  is  needless  to  discuss  it,  for  its  consummation  is 
not  even  in  the  range  of  remote  possibilities.  ~Not  a 
single  nation  among  the  Powers  would  approve  it. 
And  yet  none  need  be  surprised  if  some  such  agitation 
appears. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   BOOT   OF    THE   IRISH    QUESTION 

The  antagonism  on  the  part  of  the  Irish  toward  Eng- 
land is  as  old  as  the  relations  between  these  two  coun- 
tries. Its  roots  run  deep  in  history,  and  it  still  flour- 
ishes because  it  is  constantly  watered  by  religious  agita- 
tion and  prejudice.  The  Irish  regard  themselves  as  a 
subdued  people  in  a  conquered  country.  Possessing  no 
historical  sense  and  exaggerating  their  own  abilities  and 
virtues,  they  are  totally  blind  to  their  own  crimes  while 
those  of  England  loom  large  before  them.  "Like  a 
wounded  animal,  Celtic  Ireland  is  always  licking  her 
sores  and  nursing  her  anger.  Her  leaders  are  forever 
raking  into  the  embers,  or  rather  the  burnt-out  cinders, 
of  the  past.  To  them  there  is  no  amnesty  of  complaints, 
and  the  remembrance  of  mistakes  and  wrongs  is  ever 
fresh.  Time  brings  no  limitation  of  offenses,  and  no 
healing  on  its  wings.  Without  a  single  grievance  in  the 
present,  the  self-styled  Nationalists  are  forever  talking 
of  the  old  tyranny  of  England,  and  her  old  oppression 
of  Ireland.  !N"ot  a  word  do  they  utter  of  England's 
awakened  conscience,  or  of  her  sincere  desire  to  remedy 
every  wrong,  and  to  conciliate  every  subject  throughout 
her  Empire." 

66 


ROOT  OF  THE  IRISH  QUESTION         67 

That  the  crimes  of  England  toward  Ireland  have 
been  great,  no  man,  not  even  the  most  loyal  English- 
man, would  care  to  deny,  and  no  lover  of  justice  can 
hold  a  brief  for  her  in  this  regard.  But  Ireland's 
skirts  are  not  clear.  Her  cruelty  has  rivaled  that  of 
England,  and  as  for  intolerance  her  guilt  is  deeper  in 
that  she  has  never  repented  or  forsaken  her  ways.  She 
will  not  understand  that  actions  are  to  be  judged  by  the 
prevailing  moral  standards  of  the  age  in  which  they  are 
performed,  and  not  by  the  more  exalted  standards  of 
more  enlightened  times.  And  so  she  goes  back  into  past 
centuries  and  finds  there  oppressions,  cruelties,  and  in- 
justices on  the  part  of  England,  and  when  she  finds 
them  she  drags  them  across  the  centuries  unchanged  and 
holds  them  up  in  the  light  of  present  day  morality,  in 
which  they  naturally  appear  repulsive.  "This  is  Eng- 
land," she  exclaims.  But  it  is  not  England.  It  is  the 
seventeenth  century  in  the  light  of  the  most  tender 
conscience  the  world  ever  knew.  And  when  such  a  proc- 
ess is  coupled  with  complete  forgetfulness  of  her  own 
shortcomings,  it  constitutes  injustice  and  misrepresen- 
tation on  the  part  of  Ireland  of  the  worst  sort.  Suppose 
the  horrors  and  the  unspeakable  villainy  of  Ireland's 
massacre  of  Protestants,  than  which  no  more  vile  crime 
stains  the  page  of  history,  were  to  be  pictured  in  its 
true  colors  and  underneath  it  the  legend  were  placed, 
aThis  is  Ireland !"  There  would  be  a  world-wide  Irish 
protest,  and  justly  so.  Yet  the  stock  in  trade  of  Irish 
agitators  even  to-day  is  the  painting  of  just  such  por- 
traits of  England.  And  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  no 


68  SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

people  on  earth  have  had  greater  concessions  made  to 
them  than  the  Irish  have  received  from  England  in  the 
past  two  generations. 

Ireland  is  indeed  a  conquered  country.  She  was  in- 
vaded first  hy  the  Normans  at  the  close  of  the  eighth 
century.  In  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century  Pope 
Adrian  IV  granted  Ireland  to  Henry  II  with  instruc- 
tions .to  possess  the  island  "for  the  purpose  of  enlarging 
the  borders  of  the  Church,  setting  bounds  to  the  progress 
of  wickedness,  reforming  evil  manners,  planting  virtue, 
and  increasing  the  Christian  religion."  It  surely  seems 
that  the  Irish  would  respect  the  signature*  on  that  deed ! 
From  that  day  the  soil  of  Ireland  has  been  the  scene  of 
almost  constant  warfare.  !N"o  less  than  four  times  the 
country  has  been  conquered,  and  the  insurrections  and 
rebellions  have  been  innumerable.  A  history  of  Ireland 
is  most  wearisome  reading,  being  as  it  is  a  long,  verbose 
record  of  rebellions,  plots,  schemes,  intrigues,  injus- 
tice, oppression,  and  bloodshed.  England  found  the 
ancient  tribal  system  of  land  tenure  in  vogue  in  Ireland, 
and  indeed  the  people  have  not  yet  gone  beyond  their 
ideals  of  such  a  tenure.  The  feudal  system  conflicted 
sharply  with  the  holdings  of  the  clan,  and  through  the 
process  of  wars  and  consequent  confiscation  of  the  lands 
of  the  rebel  chieftains  the  landlord  system,  which  has 
been  the  curse  of  Ireland,  was  built  up.  These  land- 
lords were  largely  absentees,  holding  lands  from  which 
the  Irish  themselves  had  been  driven,  exacting  rents 
from  the  poverty-stricken  peasants,  and  holding  these  at 
their  mercy.  Through  the  system  of  ejectments  which 


ROOT  OF  THE  IRISH  QUESTION         69 

was  practiced,  thousands  of  persons  were  thrown  from 
their  homes  and  lands,  and  suffering  untold  became  the 
consequence.  And  when  on  top  of  all  this  England 
passed  laws  to  kill  the  Irish  trade  because  of  its  compe- 
tition with  English  commerce,  the  climax  of  suffering 
was  reached. 

To  this  there  was  added  the  religious  persecution  of 
the  people.  Henry  VIII  attempted  to  extirpate  Cathol- 
icism, and  the  Penal  Laws  which  were  directed  against 
the  Catholics  were  oppressive  in  the  extreme.  They 
were  denied  some  of  the  most  fundamental  of  all  human 
rights,  and  the  steel  entered  their  soul  to  leave  a  rancor 
that  has  never  passed  away.  Religious  persecution  is 
never  justified,  but  it  is  simple  truth  to  say  that  the 
English  in  Ireland  are  not  the  only  ones  who  will  have 
to  answer  for  crimes  in  this  regard.  Roman  Catholics, 
of  all  people,  can  condemn  Protestants  for  intolerance 
with  the  least  consistency,  for  the  entire  history  of  this 
Church  shows  that  it  has  also  been  one  of  her  favorite 
weapons.  And  it  has  been  used  in  -Ireland.  Each  time, 
declare  the  Protestants,  that  the  Catholics  have  gained 
the  ascendency  they  have  been  as  bitter  and  as  cruel 
against  their  enemies  as  any  people  have  ever  been  to- 
ward themselves;  in  fact  they  have  resorted  to  measures 
so  extreme  against  Protestants  that  they  shock  the  world 
even  to-day.  "We  have  learned  from  history,"  say  the 
Protestants,  "that  the  Irish  or  Celtic  party,  when  it  pos- 
sessed supreme  power,  abused  the  opportunity  to  plunder 
the  wealthy  and  industrious  Protestants ;  and  we  can  see 


70  SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

no  change  in  the  sentiments  of  a  faction  which  has  al- 
ways displayed  rancor  and  race-hatred  towards  us." 

When  we  remember  the  prevailing  ideas  of  the  days 
in  which  these  evils  flourished  we  may  find  some  sort  of 
justification  to  apply  to  both  sides.  The  confiscations 
were  all  according  to  law  and  were  the  result  of  rebel- 
lions on  the  part  of  the  old  holders.  The  Penal  Laws 
were  retaliations  for  the  Catholic  oppressions  of  Protes- 
tants under  the  reign  of  Tyrconnel.  But  nothing  can  be 
said  for  the  commerce  laws  and  the  destruction  of  Irish 
trade.  These  were  the  results  of  the  most  selfish  kind 
of  perversity,  and  for  them  England  deserves  and  has 
obtained  the  contempt  of  the  civilized  world.  But  for 
all  other  grievances  one  will  have  difficulty  in  deciding 
whose  misdeeds  weigh  heaviest  in  the  scales,  unless  we 
do  as  is  common  and  follow  the  lead  of  our  own  preju- 
dices in  the  matter.  And  so  if  we  expect  to  find  in  the 
past  history  of  the  English  and  Irish  relations  the  basis 
for  a  just  settlement  of  their  present  misunderstanding 
we  will  be  disappointed ;  the  matter  grounds  in  history, 
but  this  history  is  so  tangled  and  crisscrossed  with  abuses 
and  counter  abuses  that  it  is  well-nigh  impossible  to 
disengage  the  various  strands  and  estimate  the  compara- 
tive degrees  of  guilt. 

Ireland  is  a  conquered  country  which  has  never  rec- 
ognized the  claims  of  the  conqueror.  She  has  been 
subjected  to  a  long  line  of  persecutions;  her  terri- 
tory has  been  devastated,  her  people  have  been  killed, 
she  has  been  taxed  for  the  support  of  a  foreign  and 
minority  Church,  her  land  has  been  wrested  from  her, 


ROOT  OF  THE  IRISH  QUESTION         71 

and  ignominy  of  a  thousand  sorts  has  been  heaped 
upon  her.  This  is  her  case.  But  England  retorts  that 
she  has  a  case  also.  Ireland  has  refused  to  be  pacified, 
and  has  endeavored  to  give  aid  and  comfort  to  every 
enemy  that  England  ever  had.  She  has  murdered  Prot- 
estants, and  has  organized  a  long  line  of  prowling  bands 
for  the  purposes  of  terrorizing  the  Protestants,  driving 
off  their  cattle,  burning  their  homes,  and  devastating 
their  fields.  Her  emigrants  have  plotted  against  Eng- 
land on  the  soil  of  all  the  civilized  nations  of  the  earth. 
And  thus  the  case  stands.  Far  better  would  it  be  to  call 
the  contest  a  draw,  forget  the  past,  and  effect  a  settle- 
ment on  the  basis  of  the  present  day  situation.  And  on 
this  basis  no  man  can  truthfully  accuse  England  of  treat- 
ing Ireland  with  any  degree  of  hardness;  the  exact  op- 
posite is  the  case. 

The  positions  of  the  three  different  parties  in  Ireland 
are  well  known.  First,  and  most  important  from  every 
angle  except  in  numerical  strength,  there  are  the  Union- 
ists, commonly  known  as  the  Ulster  Protestants.  They 
possess  the  wealth,  the  energy,  the  ability,  and  the  in- 
telligence of  Ireland,  and  hold  an  unquestioned  com- 
mercial supremacy.  The  inhabitants  of  northeast  Ul- 
ster are  descendants  of  English  colonists,  and  their  po- 
litical attitude  is  that  of  a  steady  loyalty  to  the  British 
Empire.  It  is  by  no  means  true  that  they  are  not  de- 
yoted  to  Ireland,  but  they  take  the  position  that  the  inter- 
ests of  their  island  will  be  furthered  by  its  connection 
with  England.  They  are  opposed  to  most  phases  of  the 
Home  Rule  movement,  and  that  for  various  reasons: 


72          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

One  is  religious.  The  northern  Protestants  fear  re- 
ligious oppression  at  the  hands  of  the  Catholic  majority 
if  political  control  is  vested  in  that  majority.  They 
remember  the  former  massacres  and  it  is  their  convic- 
tion that  the  Irish  character  has  not  changed ;  "I  think 
it  is  not  very  unreasonable  to  suppose  and  believe  that 
what  the  Irish  people  have  done  before  they  will  do 
again,"  said  Lord  Hartington,  and  this  expresses  the 
sentiment  of  Ulster.  Another  reason  is  commercial. 
These  Protestants  possess  the  wealth  and  the  industries' 
of  Ireland.  But  they  are  in  a  minority,  and  self-govern- 
ment would  mean  that  they  would  have  to  finance  the 
government  while  its  affairs  were  administered  by  their 
enemies.  Under  the  Irish  situation  the  control  of  poli- 
tics opens  the  way  for  abuses  and  oppressions  of  various 
kinds,  and  Ulster  cannot  be  convinced  that  such  would 
not  be  directed  against  her.  Then  there  is  the  political 
side  of  the  question.  The  north  holds  that  there  is  no 
hope  for  Ireland  detached  from  Britain.  Such  a  Repub- 
lic as  might  be  set  up  would  be  the  center  of  foreign  in- 
trigues and  its  position  would  make  Ireland  an  easy  and 
desirable  prey  for  other  powers.  Her  location  on  the 
shore  of  England  would  make  all  such  movements  in- 
imical to  that  country,  and  in  the  end  that  Power  would 
have  no  course  open  to  her  except  to  again  conquer  Ire- 
land. Thus  argue  the  Protestants. 

The  second  party,  the  one  that  for  long  was  the  most 
numerous,  calls  itself  the  Nationalists.  It  embraces 
that  section  of  the  people  who  have  so  long  contended  for 
Home  Rule,  and  they  believe  that  the  entire  control  of 


ROOT  OF  THE  IRISH  QUESTION          73 

Irish  affairs  should  be  in  the  hands  of  the  Irish  them- 
selves. They  have  consistently  demanded  this  of  Eng- 
land. On  their  side  they  have  most  of  the  political  argu- 
ments that  appeal  to  the  modern  world ;  they  have  been 
in  the  majority  and  their  demand  for  control  of  their 
own  affairs  is  legitimate.  This  party  is  predominantly 
Roman  Catholic  and  it  has  always  had  the  support  of 
the  hierarchy  of  the  Church.  Priests  have  been  its 
leaders  and  agitators.  And  herein  lies  the  reason  of 
its  failure  thus  far,  and  the  basis  for  the  suspicions  of 
Ulster. 

The  third  group  are  the  extremists  who  now  call  them- 
selves the  Sinn  Feiners.  They  are  a  continuation  of  the 
old  Fenian  movement,  and  they  draw  their  inspiration 
from  the  history,  genius,  and  literature  of  old  Ireland. 
These  people  go  the  whole  length,  and  demand  abso- 
lute and  final  separation  from  England.  Ireland  must 
be  erected  into  an  independent  Republic  and  her  talents 
must  be  allowed  free  exercise  in  her  own  life.  This  is 
also  a  Catholic  movement,  although  it  is  not  so  distinctly 
religious  as  the  Nationalist  party  and  really  embraces 
many  Protestants  in  its  fold.  Its  leaders  are  for  the 
most  part  sincere  and  enthusiastic  patriots.  But  it  com- 
prises the  radical  element  of  the  country,  and  has  been 
called  the  I.  W.  W.  of  Ireland.  It  opposes  the  aims  of 
the  Nationalists  in  that  it  will  not  agree  to  any  half- 
way measures  and  advocates  armed  revolt  against  Eng- 
land. On  this  account  it  is  regarded  as  a  traitorous  con- 
spiracy by  the  government,  and  the  Easter  revolt,  ac- 
complished while  the  Empire  was  struggling  for  exis- 


74          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

tence  and  with  the  connivance  of  the  enemy,  has  em- 
bittered the  English  against  it. 

In  any  settlement  of  the  Irish  Question  these  three 
groups  must  be  dealt  with,  and  the  claim  of  Great 
Britain  must  also  be  considered.  Britain  demands,  and 
has  a  right  to  demand,  that  any  government  set  up  on 
her  shore,  especially  from  a  part  of  her  own  body,  shall 
be  friendly  to  herself  and  thoroughly  trustworthy.  But 
she  has  no  reason  to  believe  that  any  Irish  Republic 
would  be  friendly  to  her ;  the  mind,  history,  and  general 
attitude  of  Ireland  make  her  think,  indeed,  that  such  a 
government  would  be  hostile.  Since  the  Irish  have  in- 
trigued with  every  enemy  that  England  ever  had,  it  is 
natural  that  such  suspicions  should  be  aroused. 

The  problem  of  the  pacification  of  Ireland  is  thus  ex- 
ceedingly complicated  by  the  fact  that  all  four  of  the 
interests  concerned  stand  upon  platforms  that  are  reason- 
able and  legitimate.  The  suspicions  of  both  England 
and  Ulster  are  well  founded,  as  history  attests,  and  the 
safeguards  demanded  by  both  are  legitimate.  According 
to  all  our  ideas  of  democracy  the  majority  should  rule 
and  Ireland  should  have  the  right  to  direct  her  own  af- 
fairs, and  thus  the  Nationalists  gain  strength.  And 
again,  no  man  can  dispute  the  fact  that  the  Irish  genius 
should  have  free  exercise,  and  that  no  people  should  be 
held  under  an  alien  power  against  their  own  will,  and 
here  lies  the  power  of  Sinn  Fein.  But  the  real  issue 
lies  between  Ulster  and  the  Sinn  Feiners,  although 
neither  of  them  will  be  likely  to  win  in  the  contest.  I 
say  the  real  issue  lies  between  them,  because  the  aims  of 


ROOT  OF  THE  IRISH  QUESTION         75 

the  Nationalists  are  ultimately  the  same  as  those  of  the 
Sinn  Feiners.  While  this  party  has  been  willing  to  take 
all  that  it  could  get,  and  has  agitated  for  Home  Rule 
in  the  halls  of  Westminster,  no  one  has  supposed 
that  Ireland  would  be  pacified  when  it  was  granted. 
If  such  had  been  the  case  it  might  have  been  had 
long  ago.  But  the  securing  of  Home  Rule  would  have 
been  nothing  but  a  signal  for  the  renewal  of  the  agita- 
tion, this  time  directed  at  a  complete  break.  Hence  the 
Sinn  Fein  contingent  drive  directly  at  the  thing  which 
the  Nationalists  ultimately  desire.  One  of  the  most 
acute  analysts  of  Ireland  has  recently  written:  "I  be- 
lieve that  nothing  short  of  complete  self-government  has 
ever  been  the  object  of  Irish  Nationalism.  However 
ready  certain  sections  have  been'  to  accept  installments, 
no  Irish  political  leader  ever  had  authority  to  pledge 
his  countrymen  to  accept  a  half  measure  as  a  final  set- 
tlement of  the  Irish  claim.  The  Home  Rule  act,  if  put 
into  operation  to-morrow,  even  if  Ulster  were  cajoled 
or  coerced  into  accepting  it,  would  not  be  regarded  by  the 
Irish  Nationalists  as  a  final  settlement,  no  matter  what 
may  be  said  at  Westminster.  Nowhere  in  Ireland  has  it 
been  accepted  as  final.  Received  without  enthusiasm  at 
first,  every  year  which  has  passed  since  the  bill  was  in- 
troduced has  seen  the  system  of  self-government  formu- 
lated there  subjected  to  more  acute  and  hostile  criticism : 
and  I  believe  it  would  be  perfectly  accurate  to  say  that 
its  passing  to-morrow  would  only  be  the  preliminary  for 
another  agitation,  made  fiercer  by  the  unrest  of  the 
world,  where  revolutions  and  the  upsetting  of  dynasties 


76          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

are  in  the  air,  and  where  the  claims  of  nationalities  no 
more  ancient  than  the  Irish,  like  the  Poles,  the  Finns, 
and  the  Arahs,  to  political  freedom  are  admitted  by  the 
spokesmen  of  the  great  powers,  Great  Britain  included, 
or  are  already  conceded."  (A.  E. :  "Thoughts  for  A 
Convention:  Memorandum  on  the  State  of  Ireland," 
1917.) 

The  position  of  England  is  well  known ;  she  is  willing 
for  Ireland  to  have  nearly  anything  that  she  wants,  if 
the  island  can  set  her  own  house  in  order,  settle  her  own 
internal  troubles,  and  offer  certainties  that  England  and 
English  people  will  not  be  threatened.  But  England  is 
in  a  strained  and  unenviable  position.  Ireland  is  a  con- 
stant menace  to  her,  in  this  war,  in  every  war,  and  even 
in  times  of  peace.  Far  better  would  it  be  to  throw  Ire- 
land to  the  winds  and  let  her  take  care  of  herself.  But 
this  cannot  be  done,  because  England  is  in  duty  bound  to 
protect  herself  from  the  intrigues  of  a  free  Ireland,  and 
also  to  protect  English  people  in  Ireland  from  oppression 
and  destruction  at  the  hands  of  the  so-called  native  Irish. 
So  the  Irish  Question  is  in  all  reality  an  Irish  Question. 
It  is  an  internal  problem  which  the  people  themselves 
must  work  out. 

Of  course  the  difficulty  they  will  encounter  will  be 
Ulster.  It  seems  somewhat  strange  that  the  most  en- 
lightened and  prosperous  part  of  Ireland  should  be  the 
very  section  wherein  is  contained  the  most  determined 
and  bitter  opposition  to  Irish  freedom.  But  it  is  easy 
to  understand  when  we  have  even  the  most  casual  ac- 
quaintance with  the  history  of  Ulster  and  the  mind  of 


ROOT  OF  THE  IRISH  QUESTION         77 

the  Ulster  people.  They  are  called  Irishmen,  but  they 
have  practically  no  Irish  blood  in  their  veins ;  they  are 
the  descendants  of  the  British  colonists  who  were  sent 
into  Ireland  to  occupy  the  land  under  James  and  Crom- 
well. At  the  accession  of  James  the  land  of  Ulster  was 
desolate,  inhabited  by  a  low  Irish  peasantry  and  owned 
by  the  great  earls  of  Tyrone  and  Tyrconnel,  the  O'Neill 
and  O'Donnell  chieftains.  After  a  rebellion  in  which 
they  joined  forces  with  the  Spanish,  the  earls  were 
forced  to  flee  and  their  lands  were  forfeited  to  the 
Crown.  James  then  conceived  the  idea  of  the  Planta- 
tion of  Ulster  with  border  people  from  England,  hoping 
to  settle  the  border  feuds  in  his  own  country  and  at  the 
same  time  to  introduce  order  and  prosperity  into  north- 
ern Ireland.  Other  plantations  had  been  attempted  in 
Ireland  and  they  had  all  failed,  but  to  James  it  ap- 
peared that  these  failures  had  been  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  colonists  had  intermarried  with  the  natives  and  thus 
been  absorbed.  His  idea  was  to  transplant  a  sturdier 
people  and  to  send  their  women  with  them  to  prevent 
intermarriage.  Thus  were  the  Protestants  sent,  whether 
or  no,  to  Ireland.  The  scheme  of  James  worked,  the 
presence  of  the  English  women  and  the  barrier  of  re- 
ligion preventing  intermarriage,  and  under  the  industry 
of  these  settlers  Ulster  began  to  blossom  and  to  bear 
fruit. 

All  went  well  until  the  fateful  year  of  1641,  when  the 
Irish  Catholics  rose  at  a  signal  and  began  the  systematic 
butchery  of  the  Protestants,  and  the  massacre  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  civil  war  that  continued  twelve  years.  His- 


78          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

torians  have  exhausted  the  powers  of  language  in  their 
attempts  to  depict  the  horrible  cruelties  of  these  wanton 
murders.  Men,  women,  and  children  were  drowned, 
burned,  ripped  open,  and  killed  in  every  conceivable  way 
in  this  attempt  to  exterminate  the  foreigners,  and  in  the 
massacre  and  the  war  that  followed  it  has  been  estimated 
that  no  less  than  200,000  Protestants  lost  their  lives. 
And  thus  the  plantation  of  James  failed.  The  rebel- 
lion  was  put  down  by  Cromwell,  who  went  about  the  task 
in  his  customary  energetic  way;  in  this  he  earned  the 
never-dying  hatred  of  the  Irish,  but  it  is  likely  that  the 
measures  of  Cromwell  were  excusable  according  to  the 
tenets  of  warfare  then  existing,  and  even  mild  and  gen- 
erous in  the  case  of  non-combatants.  Cromwell  saw  that 
the  English  colonists  would  always  be  in  danger  as  long 
as  the  sullen  Irish  remained  in  the  province,  so  he  ban- 
ished them  across  the  Shannon  and  divided,  the  land 
among  his  soldiers.  This  is  the  basis  of  the  Irish  griev- 
ance, and  the  reason  why  "the  curse  o'  CrummeP  is  re-' 
membered  to  this  day :  the  lands  were  then  safely  in  the 
possession  of  the  foreigners. 

Then  began  the  midnight  prowlings  of  the  Kapparees, 
a  proceeding  for  which  the  island  is  famous.  Organized 
bands  of  cattle  drivers  and  moonlight  prowlers,  the  Rap- 
parees,  the  Houghers,  the  .White-Boys,  the  Right-Boys, 
the  Defenders,  the  Molly  Maguires,  the  Ribbonmen,  the 
Moonlighters,  the  Land-Leaguers,  and  others,  appeared 
to  carry  on  systematic  outrages  against  the  fields,  crops, 
stock,  and  persons  of  the  settlers.  Under  the  reign  of 
the  last  of  the  Stuarts  the  Protestants  were  disarmed  and 


ROOT  OF  THE  IRISH  QUESTION         79 

excluded  from  the  army,  thus  placing  them  at  the  mercy 
of  their  foes.  James  II  fled  to  Ireland  and  civil  war 
broke  out  under  his  standard,  but  this  was  brought  to  an 
end  by  William  of  Orange,  who  was  supported  by  the 
Protestants.  In  179 8  another  rebellion  started  under 
the  leadership  of  the  United  Irishmen.  This  League 
had  started  some  years  before  as  a  non-sectarian  move- 
ment and  some  Protestants  were  connected  with  it,  but 
it  was  soon  discovered  that  the  United  Irishmen  were 
the  supporters  of  the  prowling  Defenders  and  the  Protes- 
tants scented  danger.  When  the  rebellion  began  it  soon 
developed  into  a  Catholic  war  on  the  Protestants,  and  the 
cruelties  and  massacres  perpetrated  on  the  settlers  out- 
did those  of  the  days  of  1641.  They  were  impaled  on 
pikes,  roasted  before  slow  fires,  and  tortured  in  many 
ways.  It  was  from  this  war  that  the  Orange  Lodge  and 
a  defensive  organization  called  the  "Peep  o'  Day  Boys" 
took  their  rise. 

Thus  is  indicated  the  historical  basis  of  the  Irish 
Question  as  it  concerns  Ulster.  The  antagonism  of  the 
Irish  is  based  upon  the  fact  that  there  are  some  thou- 
sands of  foreign  people  in  possession  of  land  which  three 
hundred  years  ago  belonged  to  their  fathers,  and  back  of 
most  of  the  agitation  lies  the  desire  to  repossess  this  land. 
Generation  after  generation  hand  down  the  tradition, 
and  they  publish  maps  showing  the  fertile  fields  of  Ul- 
ster parceled  out  among  the  old  families.  Never  have 
they  regarded  the  settlers  in  any  other  light  than  that  of 
usurpers;  never  have  they  conceded  their  right  to  the 
lands  of  Ulster.  Lord  Ernest  Hamilton,  formerly  a 


80          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

Member  of  Parliament  from  .ftTorth  Tyrone,  a  man  who 
for  years  was  in  the  center  of  the  political  life  of  Ire- 
land, has  thus  stated  the  case  from  the  standpoint  of 
Ulster.  "The  only  attraction  of  Home  Rule  to  the  inner 
soul  of  the  Irish  (especially  in  Ulster)  is  the  hope  that  it 
will  provide  the  machinery  by  which  the  British  colo- 
nists can  be  got  rid  of  and  Irish  soil  revert  once  more  to 
the  Irish.  In  Ulster  the  cry  of  'Ireland  for  the  Irish7 
is  not  the  mere  innocent  expression  of  a  laudable  patrio- 
tism; it  has  a  deeper  and  a  far  more  sinister  meaning. 
It  means  the  expulsion  from  Ireland  of  the  Protestant 
colonists,  and  it  is  so  understood  clearly  by  both  sections 
of  the  population.  There  are  no  sentimental  illusions 
in  Ulster, .  whatever  there  may  be  in  England.  Home 
Bule  holds  out  to  the  native  Irish  a  coveted  and  substan- 
tial prize  which  lies  under  their  very  hands  to  pluck, 
and  which  faces  them  enticingly  at  every 'turn  of  their 
daily  labor.  Half  the  lands  of  Ulster,  and  that  the  best 
and  the  richest,  are  in  the  hands  of  the  stranger  within 
the  gates.  It  matters  nothing  that  these  lands,  when 
originally  granted,  were  waste,  and  that  the  industry  of 
the  colonists  has  made  them  rich.  It  matters  nothing 
that  Ulster  was  then  a  sink  of  murder,  misery,  and  vice, 
and  that  now  it  is  a  land  of  smiling  prosperity.  The 
natives  know  none  of  these  things ;  they  are  not  politi- 
cally educated  along  these  lines.  All  they  know  is  that 
the  lands  were  once  theirs,  and  that  they  are  now  occu- 
pied by  colonists  of  another  race  and  another  religion. 
And  so  they  cry,  or,  rather,  they  mutter  under  their 
breath,  'Ireland  for  the  Irish/  a  cry  which,  under  the  ex- 


CORXER    OF    SACKVILLE    STREET    IX    DUBLIX    AFTER    THE 
SI XX   FEIX    REBELLION    OF    191() 


WRECKED   SHOPS   IX    DUBLIX    AFTER   THE   SIXX    FEIX 
REBELLIOX    OF    1916 


ROOT  OF  THE  IRISH  QUESTION         81 

ponding  influence  of  J".  Kinahan,  becomes  freely  trans- 
lated into  'to  hell  or  to  the  sea  with  every  bloody  Protes* 
tant.'  There  is  not  a  Roman  Catholic  in  Ulster  to  whom 
the  promise  of  Home  Rule  does  not  mean  the  promise  of 
the  recovery  of  forfeited  lands.  In  some  districts  the 
lands  of  the  Protestant  farmers  have  already  been  offi- 
cially allotted  .among  the  native  population."  ("The 
Soul  of  Ulster,"  112,  117,  120-121.) 

As  early  as  1793  a  Dr.  Duigenan,  who  had  been 
reared  a  Catholic  *but  who  adopted  Protestantism  in 
manhood,  pointed  out  this  phase  of  the  question  in  an 
address  before  the  Irish  Parliament.  "The  Irish  Cath- 
olics," he  said,  "to  a  man  esteem  all  Protestants  as 
usurpers  of  their  estates.  To  this  day  they  settle  those 
estates  on  'the  marriage  of  their  sons  and  daughters. 
They  have  accurate  maps  of  them.  They  have  lately 
published  in  Dublin  a  map  of  this  kingdom  cantoned 
out  among  the  old  proprietors.  They  abhor  all  Protes- 
tants and  all  Englishmen  as  plunderers  and  oppressors, 
exclusive  of  their  detestation  of  them  as  heretics." 

So  the  situation  stands  to-day.  Behind  both  race  and 
religion  there  lies  the  fact  that  the  settlers  are  in  pos- 
session of  lands  that  once  belonged  to  the  Irish,  and  the 
deepest  conviction  of  the  Irish  soul  is  that  these  lands 
should  be  restored.  This  means  the  expulsion  of  the 
English  from  Ireland.  It  is  possible  to  work  up  a  vast 
deal  of  sympathy  for  the  Irish  claim,  when  we  remember 
how  the  lands  came  into  English  hands.  But  with  all 
this,  it  is  impossible  to  think  that  dispossession  of  the 
settlers  would  be  either  just  or  beneficial.  It  is  unde- 


82          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

niable  that  these  settlers  have  made  out  of  land  once 
waste  a  province  surpassing  anything  in  southern  Ire- 
land for  fruitfulness,  and  have  built  up  in  Ulster  a  sys- 
tem of  commerce  upon  which  all  Ireland  depends  for 
revenue.  It  is  therefore  apparent  that  the  restitution 
of  this  section  to  the  natives  would  work  to  the  disad- 
vantage of  the  country. 

Then,  entirely  apart  from  the  ethics  of  the  planta- 
tions, it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  no  one  of  the  Eng- 
lish, and  none  of  their  ancestors  remembered  by  them, 
were  concerned.  For  three  hundred  years  they  have 
been  in  undisputed  possession,  and  even  at  the  time  the 
natives  were  dispossessed  the  will  of  the  settlers  them- 
selves did  not  dictate  governmental  action.  So  however 
unjust  the  original  settlement  may  have  been,  dispos- 
session at  this  late  day  would  be  a  thousand  times  more 
unjust.  Furthermore,  according  to  the  codes  of  that 
day,  and  it  is  unallowable  to  judge  on  the  basis  of  any 
other  code,  the  plantations  were  perfectly  legal.  The 
lands  were  declared  confiscate  on  account  of  rebellion, 
the  people  were  banished  beyond  the  Shannon  for  the 
same  reason,  and  all  of  the  cruelties  of  which  they  so 
bitterly  complain  were  thus  caused. 

But  this  phase  of  the  question  carries  us  into  the 
whole  range  of  the  morality  of  colonization,  and  this 
concerns  practically  the  entire  earth.  Would  it  be  right 
for  the  American  Indians  to  insist  upon  a  restitution  of 
the  land  and  the  expulsion  of  the  people  who  now 
occupy  them  ?  If  we  grant  the  contention  of  the  native 
Irish  the  principle  should  be  carried  further.  Give 


ROOT  OF  THE  IRISH  QUESTION         83 

England  back  to  the  Welsh  and  expel  France  from 
Algiers,  Canadians  from  Canada,  and  all  European  na- 
tions from  India  and  Africa !  This  would  be  the  proper 
course  of  procedure  to  accompany  the  expulsion  of  the 
settlers  from  Ireland. 

This,  then,  explains  the  opposition  of  Ulster  to  Home 
Rule,  an  opposition  that  is  stern,  unbending,  and  uncom- 
promising. It  will  go  to  the  full  length.  When  the 
Home  Rule  bill  which  now  stands  on  the  statute  books 
was  enacted  into  law  in  1914,  Ulster  announced  her  in- 
tention to  fight,  and  she  made  ready  her  instruments  of 
warfare.  The  operation  of  the  law  was  suspended  in 
view  of  this  attitude.  And  a  great  injustice  is  done  to 
the  best  citizenship  of  Ireland  when  people  do  not  re- 
member that  she  opposes,  not  Home  Rule,  but  the  conse- 
quences of  expulsion,  robbery,  murder,  and  oppression, 
which  she  believes  would  inevitably  follow.  She  deems 
it  not  very  unreasonable  to  suppose  and  believe  that  what 
the  Irish  people  have  done  before  they  will  do  again. 

That  Home  Rule  would  give  an  opportunity  for  such 
injustice,  even  with  all  conceivable  safeguards,  is  very 
true.  There  would  be  no  more  open  murders,  and  per- 
haps no  openly  adverse  legislation.  But  the  offices  would 
be  filled  with  the  hostile  element,  injustices  would  creep 
into  the  taxation,  prowlings  and  rapine  would  be  con" 
tinned,  juries  would  be  sympathetic,  and  even  legislative 
and  judicial  bodies  might  take  cognizance  of  the  natives' 
plea  that  they  were  entitled  to  the  lands  of  the  north. 
All  this  is  a  possibility  under  Home  Rule,  and  Ulster 
thinks  she  possesses  enough  knowledge  of  the  native  char- 


84          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

acter  to  know  tHat  such  opportunities  are  never  lost  And 
so  the  deadlock  stands.  If  England  should  stand  apart 
and  allow  the  Irish  to  fight  it  out,  Ulster  could  never  be 
conquered.  She  stands  ready  at  any  time,  with  her 
facilities,  to  defeat  three  times  her  own  number  of  na- 
tives. And  a  self-governing  Ireland  without  Ulster  can- 
not support  herself,  for  the  north  possesses  all  the  wealth 
of  the  island.  This  lends  support  to  the  Ulster  side,  for 
in  spite  of  the  doctrine  of  majority  rule,  there  is  ground 
for  objection  when  the  south  expects  the  north  to  pay 
all  the  bills  while  the  south,  with  all  her  hostility,  runs 
the  country.  "What,"  asks  Ulster,  "if  the  Eed  Indians 
outnumbered  the  Canadians  five  to  two  and  the  govern- 
ment should  be  placed  in  their  hands  ?" 

The  venom  recoils  on  the  head  of  England,  but  she  is 
in  no  way  to  blame.  She  has  long  stood  ready  to  make 
any  concession  to  Ireland  when  the  people  settled  their 
own  differences  and  made  known  their  desires.  But  she 
cannot  permit  her  own  people  to  be  dispossessed  and 
destroyed,  nor  can  she  permit  a  Republic  to  be  set  up  by 
her  side  which  would  harbor  enemy  agents  and  become 
the  hot-bed  of  intrigue  against  her;  the  action  of  the 
Irish  in  every  war  the  Motherland  has  ever  waged  makes 
England  exceedingly  and  justifiably  wary  in  this  re- 
gard. In  the  meanwhile,  she  has  gone  to  the  most  un- 
usual length  in  her  attempts  to  pacify  the  unpacifiable 
people.  Eealizing  that  the  landlord  system  was  making 
against  the  people,  she  arbitrarily  and  forcibly  dispos- 
sessed the  landlords  through  a  series  of  land  laws,  and 
now  the  land  has  passed  largely  into  the  hands  of  the 


ROOT  OF  THE  IRISH  QUESTION         85 

people  themselves.  If  any  Irishman  aspires  to  become 
a  landowner,  the  way  is  open  to  him.  England  will  loan 
him  all  the  money  to  make  the  purchase,  she  will  com- 
pel the  landlord  to  sell  at  a  reasonable  figure,  and  she 
will  allow  the  native  half  a  century  to  return  the  money 
at  an  insignificant  rate  of  interest.  If  the  native  is  a 
laborer  and  does  not  desire  a  farm,  he  is  at  no  disad- 
vantage. For  England  will  take  a  selected  piece  of 
ground,  build  upon  it  an  elegant  and  adequate  cottage, 
and  let  the  cottage  to  the  laborer  for  a  rent  that  is  a 
mere  pittance.  I  do  not  know  of  any  other  people  who 
are  so  treated.  But  these  measures  on  the  part  of  Eng- 
land meet  with  no  gratitude  from  the  Irish ;  "what  vir- 
tue is  there,"  they  ask,  "in  paying  back  in  installments 
what  was  originally  stolen  en  bloc?" 

The  impartial  observer  will  very  likely  believe  that 
there  is  no  salvation  apart  from  the  British  Empire  for 
the  Irish.  Ulster  will  never  agree  to  cast  her  lot  with 
such  a  Republic  as  the  extreme  Sinn  Feiners  propose, 
and  they  cannot  compel  the  northern  province.  And 
without  her  no  Republic  can  support  itself.  This  is 
recognized,  and  the  Sinn  Fein  faction  go  to  the  unusual 
length  of  demanding  that  England  repay  their  treason 
and  intrigues  by  setting  them  up  as  a  Republic  and  at 
the  same  time  making  them  an  allowance  large  enough 
to  pay  their  bills — this,  they  claim,  is  what  England  owes 
to  Ireland.  At  the  present  time  this  faction  will  accept 
nothing  less.  When  England  proposed  the  convention 
of  all  the  Irish  for  the  purpose  of  arriving  at  a  solu- 
tion of  their  own  differences,  the  Sinn  Feiners  held 


86          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

back  and  refused  their  cooperation,  thus  placing  them- 
selves in  the  position  of  obstructionists.  It  is  difficult  to 
believe  that  the  Irish  could  really  govern  themselves 
on  the  Emerald  Isle;  it  is  quite  certain  they  could  not, 
either  in  finances  or  in  peaceable  administration,  if 
Ulster  held  back. 

Sinn  Fein  should  modify  its  demands  and  Ulster 
should  modify  hers,  thus  finding  a  basis  of  settlement  on 
the  Home  Rul6  platform.  Guarantees  of  the  most  sin- 
cere and  liberal  kind  must  be  thrown  about  Ulster,  and 
the  connection  with  Great  Britain  must  be  retained. 
This,  is  not  only  true  for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  al- 
legiance of  the  northern  province,  but  also  for  the  pro- 
tection of  Ireland  herself.  A  weak  and  struggling  Re^ 
public,  bordering  the  .coast  of  England,  has  no  chance 
in  these  days  in  Europe.  Her  desire  is  to  place  herself 
under  the  protection  of  Germany,  but  in  this  she  would 
be  out  of  the  frying  pan  into  the  fire,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  menace  this  would  afford  to  England.  An  Ire- 
land with  the  status  of  a  dominion,  enjoying  a,  degree 
of  Home  Rule  that  will  protect  her  Protestant  inhabit- 
ants, seems  to  be  the  solution  of  the  problem  until  both 
sides  grow  into  a  more  lenient  attitude. 


CHAPTEK  rv; 

THE  POPE  AND  THE  WAB 

The  Pope  of  Rome  is  more  deeply  interested  in  the  ex- 
ternal facts  of  the  European  war  than  the  head  of  any 
other  ecclesiastical  organization,  and  the  war  naturally 
affects  the  communion  of  which  he  is  the  head  more 
vitally  than  any  other  Church.  This  is  true  because 
of  the  nature,  the  claims,  and  the  historical  attitude  of 
the  Roman  Catholicism.  It  once  possessed  temporal 
power  greater  than  that  of  national  rulers,  and  one  of  its 
fundamental  tenets  is  that  the  Church,  being  the  direct 
representative  of  God  on  earth,  has  a  right  to  exercise 
external  authority  of  various  kinds.  This  principle 
not  only  applies  to  the  affairs  of  state,  perhaps  we  may 
say  that  in  this  field  it  urges  its  claim  with  less  insist- 
ence than  elsewhere;  but  in  the  matter  of  morals,  the- 
ology, interpretation,  and  even  history  it  insists  upon 
a  recognition  of  this  authority.  Protestants  generally 
disapprove  of  such  a  claim,  but  there  is  something  to  be 
said  for  it  nevertheless.  The  point  here  to  be  made, 
however,  is  that  such  an  attitude  inevitably  gives  the 
Pope,  as  the  head  of  his  Church,  an  interest  in  the  diplo- 
matic affairs  of  all  peoples,  and  when  these  affairs  issue 
in  war  that  interest  is  very  much  intensified.  And  if,. 

87 


88          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

as  in  the  present  instance,  nations  which  recognize  offi- 
cially the  claims  of  the  Pope  axe  pitted  against  each 
other,  the  interest  becomes  so  vital  that  it  could  not 
possibly  be  ignored.  And  so  the  Eoman  Catholic 
Church  had  a  concern  in  the  war  that  went  far  beyond 
the  purely  moral  and  spiritual  interest  which  all  com- 
munions shared  in  common.  She  is  supposed  to  exert  an 
influence  in  its  settlement  that  is  different  in  kind  from 
the  influence  of  other  Churches — the  logic  of  her  his- 
torical position  makes  this  necessary. 

Accordingly,  we  have  had  many  evidences  that  the 
war  has  been  the  subject  of  deep  consideration  on  the 
part  of  the  Vatican.  The  Pope  has  even  gone  beyond 
the  defined  attitude  of  the  Church,  and  he  has  an- 
nounced that  he  regards  all  the  belligerents  as  his  chil- 
dren and  himself  as  the  common  father,  irrespective  of 
the  affiliations  adopted  by  these  people  and  their  gov- 
ernments— even  though  they  are  "not  yet"  Catholics,  he 
puts  it.  Many  times  he  has  issued  prayers,  addresses, 
and  appeals  to  the  belligerent  nations,  urging  peace.  He 
made  a  strenuous  effort  to  secure  a  Christmas  truce,  and 
as  a  matter  of  fact  such  an  armistice  was  quite  generally 
observed  by  the  armies,  although  it  was  not  accepted  by 
the  authorities;  we  are  told  by  the  soldiers  themselves 
that  at  Christmas  they  sang  across  "No  Man's  Land" 
from  trench  to  trench,  exchanged  cigarettes  and  delica- 
cies, and  fraternized  quite  freely  and  generally.  Then 
the  Pope  exerted  a  very  great  influence  in  securing 
the  exchange  of  prisoners  who  were  incapacitated  for 
military  service,  in  having  thousands  of  prisoners  trans- 


THE  POPE  AND  THE  WAR  89 

ferred  to  Switzerland,  where  they  received  much  better 
treatment  and  attention,  and  in  securing  commutation 
of  sentences  and  pardons  for  a  large  number  of  con- 
demned persons.  There  is  no  doubt  that  in  these  mat- 
ters the  Pope  was  able  to  exert  an  influence  for  great 
good ;  he  strengthened  himself  with  a  large  element,  and 
as  far  as  he  was  able  to  go  he  really  earned  the  gratitude 
of  mankind. 

The  Vatican  therefore  believes  that  it  has  added  very 
much  to  its  prestige  during  the  war.  Both  England  and 
Russia  sent  ministers  of  state  to  Rome  accredited  to 
the  Vatican,  which  action  is  taken  by  the  Church  to 
mean  that  these  countries  are  coming  to  recognize  the 
authority  of  the  Pope.  But  this  is  a  mistaken  idea.  So 
far  as  England,  at  least,  is  concerned  the  action  was 
taken  solely  because  the  representatives  of  the  Central 
Powers  were  constantly  in  touch  with  the  Pope,  and 
England  felt  it  necessary  to  have  a  representative  on  the 
ground  to  prevent  possible  intrigues.  So  these  ambas- 
sadors are  little  better  than  secret  service  agents  of  the 
governments  accrediting  them,  and  instead  of  indicating 
a  kindlier  feeling  towards  the  Church  they  really  sig- 
nify a  suspicion  that  is  the  very  reverse  of  kindness. 

The  simple  truth  is  that  the  Pope  is  everywhere  con- 
sidered pro-German.  His  enemies  constantly  accuse  him 
of  having  been  in  league  with  the  Central  Powers.  In 
the  first  place,  there  is  the  fact  that  Austria  was  the 
greatest  Catholic  nation  on  earth,  and  the  relations  be- 
tween the  Vatican  and  Vienna  are  well  known.  It  is 
impossible  that  the  Pope  should  look  with  compla- 


90          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

cence  upon  the  prospect  of  seeing  Austria  crushed,  for 
if  there  still  remained  a  hope  of  regaining  temporal 
supremacy  or  of  securing  another  group  of  papal  states, 
such  a  hope  was  undoubtedly  closely  bound  up  with  the 
success  of  Austria.  And  that  meant  nothing  but  the 
triumph  of  Germany. 

In  the  second  place,  the  Pope  has  been  subjected  to  a 
vast  deal  of  criticism  because  of  his  refusal,  or  failure, 
to  denounce  the  invasion  of  Belgium  and  the  outrages 
consequent  upon  such  invasion.  In  view  of  the  fact 
that  Belgium  was  one  of  the  countries  still  loyal  to  the 
papacy,  some  such  action  was  expected;  and  when  it 
failed  to  materialize  an  idea  prevailed  that  the  silence 
was  due  to  the  fact  that  such  a  protest  would  have  been 
a  denunciation  of  the  Central  Powers. 

Again,  there  are  those  who  believe  that  the  Church 
cherishes  a  deep  resentment  against  France,  once  her 
favorite  child,  for  having  cast  off  the  establishment  some 
years  ago,  and  that  she  would  not  have  been  averse  to 
seeing  France  humiliated,  especially  if  such  humiliation 
were  accompanied  by  advantages  accruing  to  Austria. 
This  is  strenuously  denied  by  Catholics;  they  declare 
that  France  is  still  the  favorite  daughter  of  the  Vati- 
can in  spite  of  her  defection.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
it  is  plain  to  be  seen  that  there  is  a  deep  gulf  between 
France  and  Kome.  France  was  the  last  nation  to  ex- 
press any  gratitude  to  the  Pope  for  his  services  in  the 
transfer  of  prisoners,  and  her  reticence  has  been  much 
commented  upon.  Then  France  is  the  only  nation  that 
does  not  exempt  priests  from  military  service ;  thousands 


THE  POPE  AND  THE  WAR  91 

of  them  were  conscripted  and  fought  in  the  trenches. 
While  this  action  indicated  a  lack  of  consideration  on 
the  part  of  the  government  towards  the  Church,  it  has 
really  been  of  great  advantage  to  the  Church.  While  in 
the  other  allied  countries  there  is  wide  spread  dissatis- 
faction because  of  the  exemption  of  the  clergy,  which 
has  lost  to  them  much  respect  and  prestige,  the  French 
priests  have  gained  immeasurably  in  the  opinions  of 
the  people  because  of  their  experience  in  the  trenches. 

In  addition  to  this  alleged  sentiment  towards  France, 
there  exists  the  fact  that  the  Vatican  has  no  reason  to 
ally  herself  closely  to  England.  Here  she  gets  no  hope 
of  a  recognition  of  temporal  authority.  The  actions  of 
the  priests  in  Ireland,  and  the  disloyalty  of  the  Catholic 
population  in  this  island  generally,  have  angered  and  ex- 
asperated England  to  such  an  extent  that  there  is  a 
deep  prejudice  against  the  Church  which  reaches  even 
through  the  colonies  of  the  British  Empire.  Then  there 
is  the  further  fact  that  the  Pope  is  not  on  good  terms 
with  Italy,  and  Italy  is  not  on  good  terms  with  the  Pope. 
The  Church  regards  the  state  as  having  usurped  the  au- 
thority and  stolen  the  territory  of  the  Pope,  and  the 
fiction  of  "the  prisoner  of  the  Vatican"  keeps  alive 
this  attitude.  All  of  these  things  naturally  contribute  to 
the  feeling  that  the  Pope  desired  the  defeat  of  the  allied 
cause. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  asserted  that  certain  inter- 
ests and  hopes  bound  the  Church  to  the  cause  of  the 
Central  Powers.  Austria  was,  of  course,  the  strongest 
bond  of  attachment.  But  the  Vatican  was  said  to  have 


92          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

had  interests  in  Germany  also.  It  is  quite  true  that  this 
is  the  home  of  the  Reformation  and  the  anathematized 
Lutheranism ;  but  Germany  has  a  large  Catholic  element 
in  her  population,  and  this  element  exerts  a  considerable 
influence.  Several  of  the  states  are  Catholic  and  con- 
tinue relations  with  Rome.  And  the  Center  Party  is 
wholly  Catholic.  So  even  in  Germany  the  Pope  had  a 
basis  for  hope,  according  to  those  who  have  conjectures 
upon  such  matters. 

Then  again,  the  incident  of  Mgr.  Gerlach's  conviction 
contributed  still  more  to  the  belief  that  Benedict 
XV  is  pro-German.  Gerlach,  although  a  German  and 
a  former  officer  in  the  German  army,  enjoyed  the  con- 
fidence and  patronage  of  the  Pope  in  a  remarkable  de- 
gree, and  the  Pope  appointed  him  "Cameriere  segreto 
participante"  and  Keeper  of  the  Wardrobe.  Suspicion 
fell  upon  him  because  of  his  connection  with  the  Prus- 
sian agents  in  Rome,  but  even  after  Italy  entered  the 
war  he  was  kept  in  his  position  in  the  Vatican.  It  later 
developed  that  Gerlach  had  taken  charge  of  the  Ger- 
man espionage  system;  he  disbursed  German  money, 
subsidized  the  press,  and  managed  the  entire  work  of 
propaganda  and  spying.  Although  he  was  sentenced  to 
death  by  the  government,  the  priest  made  his  escape  into 
Germany.  There  is  no  evidence  that  his  holiness  was  in 
any  way  concerned  in  the  matter,  but  the  mere  fact  that 
a  traitor  should  be  found  among  the  papal  officials,  and 
that  such  a  man  was  retained  in  office  after  Italy  had 
declared  war  against  his  government,  gave  the  enemies  of 
the  Vatican  a  chance  to  make  capital  against  it. 


THE  POPE  AND  THE  WAR  93 

Even  the  attempts  of  the  Pope  to  secure  peace  were 
used  against  him  by  those  who  sought  to  convict 
him  of  being  pro-German.  It  is  well  known  that  all  of 
the  peace  offers  came  from  the  side  of  the  Central 
allies,  and  when  the  voice  of  the  Vatican  was  lifted  it 
was  considered  to  be  a  voice  from  the  same  side.  And 
that  is  one  reason  so  little  attention  was  paid  to  such 
proposals  looking  to  peace:  they  were  considered  by 
the  Allies  exactly  as  if  they  emanated  from  the  enemy ; 
while  this  was  not  the  official  attitude,  of  course,  it  was 
the  attitude  of  the  people  at  large,  and  the  one  under 
which  the  governments  were  supposed  to  move.  This  at- 
titude was  strengthened  when  the  Pope  put  forth  his 
definite  peace  program,  for  that  was  a  proposition 
which  Germany  could  have  well  afforded  to  accept. 
While  it  refused  to  Germany  the  annexations  and  indem- 
nities which  she  hoped  to  gain,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  she  had  already  practically  despaired  of  ever  ob- 
taining her  ambitions;  and  even  a  return  to  the  status 
quo  ante  bellum  would  still  have  left  Germany  dominat- 
ing Central  Europe  through  her  alliances,  as  President 
Wilson  pointed  out,  and  this  would  have  been  a  prac- 
tical victory  for  her. 

There  were  several  points  in  the  Pope's  proposal 
which  could  hardly  have  been  accepted  by  the  Allies.  In 
the  first  place,  it  provided  that  Belgium  should  be  evacu- 
ated and  guaranteed  independence — nothing  more. 
"Novf  that  was  exactly  the  case  with  Belgium  before  she 
was  outraged,  and  this  proposal  made  no  provision  for 
a  guarantee  on  the  part  of  Germany  that  such  inde- 


94          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

pendence  should  be  respected  other  than  the  Teutonic 
word  of  honor.  Belgium  had  that  word  of  honor,  ratified 
by  a  solemn  treaty,  before  this  war  began,  and  Germany 
declared  it  to  be  "a  scrap  of  paper."  So  when  nothing 
was  offered  to  Belgium  except  another  treaty  of  the 
same  sort,  it  was  plain  to  see  that  she  could  only  reject 
it.  There  was  no  security  in  it,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
injustice  of  having  Germany  simply  evacuate  after  de- 
stroying Belgian  property  and  life. 

In  the  second  place,  the  proposal  was  voided  by  its 
treatment  of  the  problems  of  Alsace-Lorraine  and  the 
Italian  Irredenta.  These  territories,  because  of  his- 
tory, nationality,  and  the  desires  of  the  people,  should 
have  been  taken  from  Germany  and  Austria,  and  it  was 
clearly  no  settlement  of  the  questions  to  suggest  "peace- 
able negotiation."  If  that  would  have  sufficed,  a  set- 
tlement might  have  been  effected  years  ago. 

In  the  third  place,  the  very  phrase  "freedom  of  the 
seas"  has  a  German  sound.  For  what  can  this  mean  ? 
Germany  has  always  had  freedom  of  the  seas  so  far  as 
her  commerce  and  legitimate  pursuits  are  concerned. 
She  has  been  restricted  on  the  seas  only  in  the  matter  of 
attacking  England.  The  European  arrangement  has,  of 
course,  been  for  Germany  to  maintain  supremacy  on  the 
land  while  England  maintained  supremacy  on  the  sea, 
an  arrangement  entirely  equitable  owing  to  the  charac- 
ter of  the  two  nations.  But  since  the  Franco-Prussian 
war  Germany  has  insisted  upon  being  supreme  upon 
both  land  and  sea,  a  program  which,  of  course,  was  aimed 
at  England.  It  was  this  unreasonable  demand  upon  the 


THE  POPE  AND  THE  WAR  95 

part  of  Germany,  that  she  dominate  both  sea  and  land, 
which  nullified  The  Hague  conferences  and  brought  to 
nothing  the  repeated  attempts  on  the  part  of  England  to 
secure  a  limitation  of  armaments. 

So  to  Germany  the  freedom  of  the  seas  means  noth- 
ing except  that  she  be  allowed  such  domination, 
since  she  has  always  had  freedom  of  every  other 
sort.  And  when  this  suspicious  phrase  was  discovered 
in  the  proposal  of  the  Pope,  it  caused  suspicion  in- 
stantly. 

These  fundamental  defects  were  reenforced  by  many 
others.  For  example,  why  speak  of  disarmament  with- 
out setting  up  some  form  of  authority,  in  view  of  the 
historical  facts  that  Germany  has  always  rejected  Eng- 
land's atempts  to  secure  a  limitation,  that  she  has  nulli- 
fied every  Hague  conference  that  has  been  held,  and  that 
she  even  refused  to  enter  into  peace  treaties,  which  had 
been  signed  by  all  other  nations?  !N"o  acceptance  of 
such  a  proposal  could  change  the  German  attitude  or 
government,  and  hence  autocracy  would  only  be  per- 
petuated by  its  acceptance.  In  dealing  with  a  power 
which  refused  point-blank  to  declare  that  it  would  re- 
spect its  own  treaty,  and  which  later  declared  it  to  be 
a  mere  "scrap  of  paper,"  it  is  plain  that  something  more 
substantial  than  agreements  made  with  the  same  parties 
must  be  a  condition  of  any  lasting  peace. 

Now  all  of  these  things  have  been  taken  by  the  Al- 
lies to  show  that  the  Pope  was  not  at  heart  really  fa- 
vorable to  their  cause,  and  his  enemies  have  not  failed 
to  turn  every  scrap  of  evidence  against  him.  It  is  for 


96          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

this  reason  that  any  peace  proposal  which  emanated 
from  the  Vatican  was  regarded  with  suspicion. 

I  have  pointed  out  that  the  Pope  was  able  to  ac- 
complish much  good  in  the  war  by  securing  a  trans- 
fer of  prisoners  and  other  concessions.  But  in  spite  of 
what  he  has  done,  the  chances  are  all  in  favor  of  a 
further  decline  of  his  influence.  There  is  a  widespread 
dissatisfaction  with  the  Church,  and  in  Italy  and  France 
it  is  naturally  directed  against  the  Koman  Catholic 
Church,  just  as  in  England  it  is  against  the  Anglicans. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  Rome,  in  spite  of  her  relation  to 
the  Church,  is  perhaps  the  most  anti-papal  city  of  Eu- 
rope. Here  one  may  hear  more  outspoken  protests 
against  the  Vatican  than  anywhere  else — than  in 
France,  for  example,  where  her  influence  has  just  been 
shaken  off  and  where  she  is  regarded  with  great  sus- 
picion and  reticence.  This  opposition  is  found  in  all 
ranks  of  society,  from  ministers  of  state  down  to  waiters 
and  carriage  drivers.  I  was  told  by  many  people  in 
Rome  that  the  body  of  the  late  Pope  could  not  be  re- 
moved from  its  temporary  tomb  in  St.  Peter's  to  its  final 
resting  place  in  St.  John  Lateran  because  the  Church 
feared  a  hostile  demonstration  on  the  part  of  the  people. 

This  attitude  is  toward  the  Church  as  an  institution 
rather  than  against  the  Roman  Catholic  religion.  In- 
deed, the  very  people  who  adopt  it  are  good  Catholics 
and  may  be  seen  regularly  at  worship  in  the  Churches. 
The  hostility  is  against  the  temporal  pretensions  of  the 
Vatican,  and  in  this  direction  it  is  quite  intense.  Com- 
paratively few  communicants  of  the  Church  are  mem- 


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IRISH    ANTI-CONSCRIPTION     IM.EUOE 


THE  POPE  AND  THE  WAR  97 

bers  of  the  Clerical  party,  which  is  the  instrument 
through  which  these  temporal  aspirations  and  agitations 
are  kept  alive.  To  the  mass  of  the  people  the  "Legge 
delle  Guarantigie,"  the  Law  of  Guarantees,  by  which 
Italy  pledged  herself  to  support,  protect,  and  honor  the 
Popes  so  long  as  they  made  Kome  their  home,  is  entirely 
satisfactory  and  they  would  by  no  means  suffer  its  re- 
peal. But  the  Vatican  steadily  opposes  this  law  and  its 
party  insists  upon  a  recognition  of  temporal  power; 
therefore  the  sum  set  aside  for  papal  support  has  never 
been  drawn  and  the  Pope  considers  himself  a  prisoner, 
although  the  inconsistency  of  accepting  the  Vatican,  Lat- 
eran  palace,  the  villa  at  Castel  Gandolfo,  and  protec- 
tion for  conclaves  and  assemblies  is  practiced.  And  re- 
cently the  antagonism  between  the  Vatican  and  the  gov- 
ernment has  been  made  more  acute  on  account  of  the 
protests  of  the  Pope  against  being  subjected  to  delays 
and  restraints,  especially  in  the  matter  of  messages  and 
couriers,  which  are  imposed  upon  all  persons,  even  gov- 
ernmental officials,  by  military  regulations.  There  was 
also  a  complaint  that  the  diplomatic  representatives  of 
Germany  and  Austria  accredited  to  the  Holy  See  had 
been  forced  to  leave  Rome,  although  this  is  vigorously 
denied  by  the  government. 

In  all  of  these  political  movements,  the  Church  is 
sadly  injuring  her  own  cause  and  is  gradually  alienating 
her  own  people.  In  every  issue  the  masses  take  the  side 
of  the  state  and  the  breach  between  them  and  the  Church 
is  thereby  widened.  But  this  does  not  mean  that  Protes- 
tantism is  growing  accordingly.  Protestantism  seldom 


98          SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

makes  any  advances  as  the  result  of  agitation  against  or 
dissatisfaction  with  Romanism;  this  agitation  usually 
has  a  political  basis,  and  if  it  succeeds  in  alienating  any 
persons  from  Rome  it  usually  embitters  them  also 
against  all  other  Churches.  Protestantism  is  tolerably 
influential  in  Italy  and  is  respected ;  it  carries  on  a  mis- 
sionary and  educational  activity  that  is  of  great  value. 
But  aside  from  the  Waldensians,  it  does  its  best  work 
among  the  foreign  population.  Atheism  is  growing  far 
more  rapidly  than  Protestantism,  if  we  can  trust  the 
statistics.  These  show  that  there  are  only  123,253  Prot- 
estants in  Italy,  while  the  avowed  Atheists  number  874,- 
532.  There  are  563,404  persons  who  refuse  to  state 
their  religious  preferences,  and  these  are  claimed  by  all 
sides :  the  Catholics  declare  they  are  Romanists  who  de- 
pend for  employment  upon  the  Socialists,  while  on  the 
other  hand  it  is  declared  that  they  are  Weak-kneed 
Protestants  who  fear  the  Catholic  majority.  When  it 
is  remembered  that  the  outspoken  Catholics  number 
33,000,000,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  Protestantism  has 
made  small  progress. 

The  work  of  Protestantism  in  Italy  is  now  mainly 
a  testing  of  the  open  Bible  theory  through  a  wonderful 
distribution  of  copies  of  the  New  Testament  to  the  sol- 
diers and  the  people  generally.  The  various  foreign  and 
local  Bible  societies  have  recently  given  away  a  million 
copies  of  the  Scriptures,  many  of  them  very  elegant  edi- 
tions with  copious  notes  and  explanations,  and  this  work 
is  proceeding  with  much  system  and  rapidity.  At  first 
this  activity  met  with  stern  resistance  on  the  part  of  the 


THE  POPE  AND  THE  WAR  99 

Roman  clergy,  and  they  caused  the  government  to 
challenge  the  Protestants  to  show  cause  why  it  should 
not  be  stopped,  at  least  so  far  as  the  armies  were 
concerned.  Fortunately,  the  societies  were  able  to  prove 
that  the  people  were  demanding  the  Scriptures  by  show- 
ing thousands  of  letters,  mostly  from  soldiers,  expressing 
gratitude  for, the  Testament,  requesting  one,  or  asking 
that  a  copy  be  sent  to  wives.  Such  evidence  was  so  over- 
whelming that  the  Protestants  were  allowed  to  proceed 
with  their  work.  And  it  also  forced  the  Catholics  to 
make  some  concessions  and  to  issue  a  version  of  the 
Scriptures  themselves.  But  the  people  prefer  the  other 
version  and  regard  the  Catholic  with  suspicion,  and  the 
fact  of  its  being  issued  has  given  them  a  greater  liberty 
in  accepting  what  is  offered  to  them  from  the  other  side. 
The  Protestants  have  always  considered  this  to  be  a 
fundamental  work  of  propaganda.  This  faith  has  con- 
tended that  the  open  Bible  is  its  main  support,  and  that 
only  a  free  acquaintance  with  it  is  necessary  to  secure 
the  conversion  of  the  people.  If  this  be  true,  then  it 
stands  to  reap  great  results  from  such  a  general  distribu- 
tion. But  wholly  aside  from  the  possibility  or  desir- 
ability of  such  results,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the 
movement  will  issue  in  great  good  educationally.  And  it 
is  already  causing  a  reaction  upon  Catholicism  which 
will  make  that  faith  more  liberal,  and  this  will  also  be 
great  gain.  In  justice  to  the  distributors  it  should  be 
said  that  they  are  not  actuated  by  any  proselyting  mo- 
tives, but  are  carrying  on  their  work  purely  for  benevo- 
lent reasons;  the  leading  spirits  among  them  are  men 


100        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

whose  Churches  have  no  missions  in  Italy.  One  can 
hardly  forecast  the  future  of  Protestantism  as  a  result 
of  this  activity ;  but  at  any  rate  it  will  put  to  an  adequate 
test  the  doctrine  that  the  Bihle  in  the  hands  of  the  peo- 
ple will  eventually  mean  their  acceptance  of  a  more 
spiritual  type  of  religion. 

The  nature  of  the  Protestant  religion  which  prevails 
in  Italy  is  that  of  a  moderate  orthodoxy,  a  hrand  which 
is  not  up  to  the  liberal  ideas  of  America  and  England 
but  which  does  not  go  in  for  the  fantastic  notions  of  me- 
dieval orthodoxy,  like  pre-millenarianism,  for  ex- 
ample, which  we  sometimes  find  in  these  countries.  The 
faith  is  very  uncritical  and  unscientific,  for  the  modern 
historical  spirit  has  not  yet  reached  Italy.  When  this 
spirit  does  begin  to  affect  the  religious  life  it  will  make 
an  immediate  difference,  but  from  a  purely  pragmatic 
and  practical  standpoint  it  is  doubtful  whether  this  dif- 
ference will  immediately  redound  to  the  advantage  of 
religion.  On  the  contrary,  it  may  drive  the  uninformed 
orthodox  back  to  Catholicism,  which  cannot  be  expected 
to  change.  And  to  some  it  may  seem  like  a  concession 
to  rationalism. 

Conditions  in  Italy  are  remarkably  like  they  were 
in  America  during  the  days  of  Ingersoll,  who  based 
his  entire  propaganda  upon  an  idea  of  the  Bible 
which  has  since  been  entirely  corrected  by  historical 
scholarship.  Ingersoll  would  have  no  message  in  Amer- 
ica to-day,  but  in  Italy  he  would  be  a  power  of  destruc- 
tion against  the  Church.  To-day  the  Italian  rationalists 
are  carrying  on  the  same  kind  of  agitation,  seizing  and 


THE  POPE  AND  TH^'WAfe^  .   ,    101 

turning  against  religion  the  contradictions^  Jthe  imperfect 
morality,  and  the  differing  ideas  of  the  Bible.  The  his- 
torical spirit,  with  its  doctrines  of  the  gradualness  of 
revelation,  dynamic  inspiration,  and  composite  character 
of  the  Bible,  will  utterly  destroy  all  this  as  a  basis  for 
the  rejection  of  religion,  but  it  will  require  some  time  for 
these  ideas  to  take  hold  upon  the  consciousness  of  the 
people.  At  first,  as  in  America,  it  will  seem  like  conced- 
ing all  the  claims  of  rationalism;  and  the  opposition 
with  which  it  will  be  met  by  the  clergy  will  lend  counte- 
nance to  this  view.  This  has  been  the  effect  of  such 
short-sighted  opposition  the  world  over.  Yet  nothing 
can  stop  this  spirit,  since  it  expresses  fundamental 
truth.  And  in  opposing  it  the  clergy  have  always  been 
the  real  enemies  of  the  Bible  and  of  the  religion  founded 
upon  it ;  they  have  despised  the  greatest  apologetic  value 
of  all  time,  after  all  other  apologetics  have  lost  their 
force. 

So  from  this  standpoint  one  may  question  whether 
there  be  not  ground  for  the  Catholic  contention  that  it  is 
dangerous  to  place  the  open  Bible  in  the  hands  of  the 
people.  It  is  indeed  dangerous  if  we  are  to  place  it  be- 
fore them  and  at  the  same  time  involve  them  in  the  old 
doctrines  of  verbal  inspiration  and  literalness.  For  this 
will  mean  a  repetition  of  the  sad  history  of  the  last  few 
years.  They  will  get  a  view  of  it  which  cannot  stand 
the  light  of  criticism,  and  when  the  principles  of  criti- 
cism begin  to  dawn  upon  them  they  will  think  their  Bible 
is  gone,  nevermore  to  be  trusted.  They  will  be  under 
the  necessity  of  either  holding  to  their  literal  notions 


102        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

and  Rejecting  Science  and  history,  or  of  accepting  the 
tenets  of  scholarship  and  giving  up  their  ideas  about  the 
Bible — and  this  latter  course,  for  the  common  man,  will 
likely  mean  giving  up  his  Bible  in  more  cases  than  other- 
wise. Therefore,  one  of  the  most  urgent  needs  in  the 
religious  world  is  for  a  general  and  popular  educational 
movement  which  will  clarify  the  ideas  of  the  people  as 
to  the  nature  of  the  Bible,  its  contents,  and  its  inspira- 
tion. Otherwise  the  people  must  continue  to  fight  ration- 
alism with  broken  blades. 

So  far  as  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  itself  is  con- 
cerned, we  may  be  quite  sure  that  she  will  survive.  Ma- 
caulay  said  that  this  Church  would  be  living  when  a 
New  Zealander  stood  upon  a  broken  arch  of  the  London 
Bridge  and  sketched  the  ruins  of  St.  Paul's,  and  Tyrrel 
remarked  that  when  she  dies  other  faiths  may  order  their 
coffins.  These  comments  state  the  case  now.  And  yet, 
while  it  is  unthinkable  that  Rome  should  perish,  it  is 
almost  as  certain  that  the  world  will  not  turn  back  to 
her  communion.  The  Reformation  laid  hold  upon  the 
best  blood  and  brain  of  the  world,  and  from  that  time  the 
drift  away  from  Rome  has  been  constant.  This  will 
never  turn  towards  her  again  unless  she  makes  changes 
that  no  man  can  safely  prophesy  she  will  ever  make. 
Yet  this  is  not  to  say  that  she  is  doomed ;  far  from  it. 
She  has  elements  of  strength  which  will  enable  her  to 
survive,  and  elements  of  truth  which  make  her  salva- 
tion possible.  It  has  recently  been  said  that  a  man  is 
a  poor  Christian  who  is  not  attracted  by  the  worship  of 
the  Catholic  Church.  The  beauty  of  her  ritual,  her 


THE  POPE  AND  THE  WAR  103 

connection  with  the  past,  her  wonderful  possessions,  and 
the  steadiness  with  which  she  adheres  to  her  traditional 
positions  all  make  an  appeal  to  us.  But  in  spite  of  this, 
there  are  few  non-Catholics  who  would  prefer  to  be- 
come her  communicants. 

Yet  the  greatest  opportunity  in  the  realm  of  religion 
to-day  is  possessed  by  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 
The  Protestant  divisions,  lack  of  centralization,  in- 
definiteness  of  doctrine,  absence  of  authority,  lax 
and  lowering  standards,  laxity  in  government — all  of 
these  things  contribute  to  the  weakness  of  Protestantism. 
Yet  in  these  same  things  lies  the  strength  of  Catholi- 
cism. Especially  does  her  form  of  government  add  to 
her  power,  and  the  fidelity  with  which  she  has  adhered 
to  her  doctrines  cannot  but  command  admiration,  even 
from  those  who  do  not  agree  with  her  interpretations. 
It  has  been  rightly  said  that  Rome  has  added  to  the 
f  aitn  and  has  corrupted  it,  but  she  cannot  be  accused  of 
having  forsaken  it.  And  so  it  seems  plain  that  if  Rome 
would  consent  to  make  the  adaptations  demanded  by  the 
spirit  of  the  age,  she  would  come  into  a  new  influence. 

These  adaptations  would  have  to  run  the  entire  course 
of  her  life.  In  the  very  first  place  it  would  be  necessary 
to  renounce  all  the  claims  to  temporal  authority,  to  ac- 
cept, and  even  to  immensely  modify,  the  Italian  Law 
of  Guarantees,  to  overthrow  the  meaningless  fiction  of 
the  "prisoner  of  the  Vatican,"  and  to  take  her  place  in 
the  world  as  a  purely  spiritual  force.  That  action  would 
have  to  be  accompanied  by  a  radical  change  of  heart  and 
attitude  toward  the  entire  question  of  scholarship,  espe- 


104        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

cially  as  it  affects  the  Bible  and  the  doctrines  of  the 
Church.  This  would  mean  the  overthrow  of  the  author- 
ity of  the  Church  in  matters  of  dogma,  the  upsetting  of 
the  entire  range  of  traditions  which  are  unsupported, 
the  opening  of  the  minds  of  all  people  to  whatever  light 
may  he  in  the  world,  and  the  beginning  of  a  new  educa- 
tional method  among  them.  The  world  believes,  no 
matter  how  strongly  the  Church  may  protest,  that  Rome 
deliberately  keeps  her  people  in  ignorance  in  so  far  as 
she  may;  this  belief  stands  on  the  basis  of  the  his- 
torical fact  that  her  religion  is  purest  where  she  is  com- 
paratively weakest,  and  that  education  is  not  enhanced 
and  furthered  where  she  is  in  absolute  control. 

When  such  reconstructions  have  been  made  and  the 
world  is  aware  that  Rome  has  entered  upon  a  new  policy 
which  will  concern  itself  wholly  with  the  spiritual  af- 
fairs of  life,  stands  for  progress  in  all  matters  of  doctrine 
and  knowledge,  and  places  upon  morality  an  importance 
which  she  has  never  stressed,  then  the  strength  of  her 
organization,  her  fidelity,  and  the  wonderful  richness  of 
her  worship  will  assert  itself  with  telling  force.  On  that 
basis  she  can  come  into  her  own  and  dominate  the  world ; 
on  the  present  basis  it  is  clear  to  be  seen  that  she  has  no 
prospects  other  than  continued  opposition,  the  total  de- 
struction of  her  political  ambitions,  and  a  gradual  and 
constant  decline  of  influence. 

But  will  Rome  consent  to  make  the  adaptations? 
Of  this  there  seems  to  be  no  hope.  She  has  displayed 
a  deplorable  blindness  to  the  ongoing  of  all  the  forces 
of  civilization  through  the  centuries,  and  this  has  been 


THE  POPE  AND  THE  WAR  105 

her  greatest  handicap.  It  seems  a  little  too  much  to 
expect  that  this  war  has  opened  her  eyes.  And  this  situ- 
ation may  well  cause  one  interested  in  the  religious 
welfare  of  the  world  to  be  sad.  There  is  nothing  over 
which  such  a  person  might  so  well  weep.  That  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  the  Church  of  the  martyrs, 
the  saints,  and  the  fathers  of  our  religion,  the  possessor 
of  most  of  the  art  treasures  of  the  world,  the  heir  of  all 
the  sentiment  and  prestige  which  history  can  bestow 
upon  any  institution,  should  insist  upon  the  crystalliza- 
tion and  perpetuation  of  ideas  derived  from  the  middle 
ages  and  ignore  the  advances  of  the  world,  thereby 
bringing  about  her  own  impotence  as  a  moral  power  on 
earth — this  is  a  condition  which  even  the  most  ardent 
Protestant  must  heartily  regret. 


CHAPTEE  V 

THE  RELIGIOUS  SITUATION  IN  THE  WAE 

One  would  have  expected  that  the  great  European 
war,  as  it  spread  death,  devastation,  and  bereavement 
over  the  world,  would  have  called  the  minds  of  the  peo- 
ple to  reality  and  to  matters  of  eternity,  thus  bringing 
them  around  to  religion.  We  have  for  centuries  educat- 
ed the  people  to  rely  upon  religion  in  times  of  great 
crises,  and  we  have  been  so  successful  in  our  tutoring 
that  multitudes  of  them  never  rely  upon  it  in  any  other 
times;  in  line  with  all  the  religious  ideas  which  we 
have  inculcated,  the  people  should  have  flocked  to  the 
Churches  when  they  heard  the  dread  sound  of  the  tocsin 
of  war.  This  was  what  the  religious  world  expected  the 
people  to  do,  and  preparations  were  made  for  a  sweep- 
ing revival  of  spirituality.  Books  were  written  for  the 
purpose  of  outlining  the  situation  from  the  religious 
viewpoint,  and  the  Church  made  ready  the  forces  of  en- 
couragement and  conservation.  During  the  first  few 
months  of  the  war  all  signs  pointed  to  the  fact  that  these 
expectations  were  to  be  abundantly  fulfilled.  The  peo- 
ple flocked  to  the  Churches  in  ever-increasing  streams, 
they  resorted  to  prayer  with  much  constancy,  and  they 
gave  all  evidences  of  a  quickening  religious  life.  In 

106 


THE  RELIGIOUS  SITUATION  107 

these  months  it  appeared  certain  that  a  great  revival 
was  imminent. 

But  this  early  religious  awakening  was  founded  on 
fear,  and  fear  is  a  motive  that  cannot  long  support  an 
intelligent  faith.  Some  years  ago  I  had  occasion  to  in- 
vestigate the  records  of  a  little  church  which  was  located 
in  the  heart  of  the  district  devastated  by  the  great  New 
Madrid  earthquake  of  1812,  and  these  ancient  records 
showed  that  before  the  earthquake  the  church  had  but  27 
members,  immediately  after  it  there  were  165,  and  a 
year  later  the  membership  had  shrunk  to  its  original 
figure.  Thus  it  has  always  been  with  religious  fervor 
that  sprang  from  fear,  and  thus  it  was  during  the  first 
months  of  the  great  war.  When  the  first  fear  and  dread 
produced  by  the  war  had  passed,  when  people  were 
able  to  think  calmly,  and  especially  when  the  fervor  of 
patriotism  had  caught  them  and  avenues  were  opened 
through  which  their  energies  could  be  used  for  the  com- 
fort of  the  soldiers,  the  superficial  religious  sentiments 
passed  also,  much  to  the  disappointment  of  those  who 
had  desired  a  renaissance  of  evangelism  and  spirituality. 

Perhaps  the  fault  was  with  these  very  people  who 
most  desired  a  religious  awakening,  for  they  utterly 
failed  to  adapt  their  message  and  their  program  to  the 
needs  of  the  time;  they  committed  the  blunder  of  be- 
lieving that  the  same  message  which  these  people  had 
spurned  in  times  of  peace  would  suffice  to  hold  them  in 
time  of  war.  In  this  they  were  much  mistaken,  as  the 
entire  social  and  spiritual  history  of  these  warring  times 
has  shown  conclusively.  The  religious  leaders  should 


108        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

have  known  better;  perhaps  they  did  know  better,  but 
the  crisis  was  upon  them  so  suddenly  that  they  were 
unable  to  make  the  necessary  adaptations,  showing  that 
they  had  no  real  grasp  on  the  entire  problem  of  religion 
as  it  applies  to  life.  At  any  rate,  they  should  now  know 
better  than  to  attempt  to  hold  the  people  after  the  war 
with  the  same  old  platitudes  which  the  people  had 
ignored  before  the  war,  and  which  they  have  tried  and 
rejected  during  the  war. 

To-day  the  person  traveling  through  the  warring 
countries  will  certainly  see  no  signs  of  a  religious  awak- 
ening ;  even  the  religious  specialist  who  investigates  in- 
tensively will  not  be  able  to  discover  them.  In  all  of  the 
cities  vice  is  more  rampant  than  ever,  the  people  are  as 
little  concerned  with  eternal  matters,  and  the  Church 
faces  the  same  problems  of  sin  and  indifference.  Evil 
habits,  such  as  cigarette  smoking,  liquor  drinking,  pro- 
fanity, and  sexual  immorality,  are  steadily  increasing 
and  are  enjoying  a  popularity  which  makes  them  diffi- 
cult to  denounce;  as  a  result  they  are  not  denounced, 
even  many  chaplains  palliating  and  excusing  them  to  a 
large  extent.  By  selecting  detached  instances  of  conver- 
sion, the  workers  encourage  themselves  to  believe  that 
religious  sentiments  are  growing,  but  the  general  situa- 
tion, and  even  their  own  observations  and  statistics,  do 
not  give  foundations  for  their  belief.  I  went  to  Europe 
for  the  purpose  of  making  social  and  moral  investiga- 
tions, resolved  to  get  the  truth  from  all  angles.  I  asso- 
ciated with  the  religious  leaders  and  workers,  with  uni- 
versity professors  and  their  students,  with  soldiers  and 


THE  RELIGIOUS  SITUATION  109 

officers  in  the  army,  with  governmental  officials  and  the 
men  an  the  street,  endeavoring  to  avoid  the  common  mis- 
take of  the  theologians  and  preachers  who  look  at  facts 
from  their  own  angle  and  leave  out  of  account  facts  that 
do  not  come  within  their  immediate  range  of  interests. 
Such  an  investigation  will  surely  reveal  that  the  re- 
ligious outlook  in  Europe  is  not  bright,  and  that  few 
people  are  trying  to  make  it  appear  bright.  All  classes 
are  fully  aware  that  the  world  faces  a  crisis  in  her  re- 
ligious and  moral  life. 

It  is  not  that  people  are  no  longer  religious.  It  is 
rather  that  they  are  confused  in  the  face  of  all  the  facts 
with  which  religion  is  presumed  to  deal.  They  are  con- 
fused, in  the  first  place,  in  regard  to  the  function  and 
the  efficacy  of  prayer.  People  never  prayed  so  much 
as  they  did  at  the  .beginning  of  hostilities ;  people  who 
had  never  prayed  before  resorted  to  the  holy  exercise 
then.  But  what  did  their  prayers  avail  ?  The  war  went 
on  and  men  were  killed  just  the  same.  And  there  were 
no  distinctions.  The  son  of  the  man  who  prayed  for  the 
boy's  safety  day  and  night  fell  by  the  side  of  the  lad 
whose  friends  recognized  no  God  to  whom  they  could 
pray.  Agonizings  meant  nothing  in  the  face  of  the 
scourge  of  war.  Then  there  came  the  thought  that  both 
sides  were  praying  for  victory  to  the  same  God,  both 
relying  upon  the  same  God  to  further  their  success. 
There  were  heathen  alliances  on  both  sides,  and  mingled 
with  the  petitions  to  God  there  were  pleadings  with  vari- 
ous pagan  deities.  Yet  none  of  them  responded  to  the 
appeals  of  their  followers.  In  the  midst  of  it  all  there 


110        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

was  confusion  and  uncertainty.  What,  then,  is  the  good 
of  prayer  ?  !Who  and  where  is  God  ?  Perhaps  there  is 
no  God  after  all  I  Such  doubtings  affected  people  in  all 
stations.  "There's  Bill,"  said  the  soldier,  "  'e  prayed 
like  'ell  and  got  'is  bloomin'  'ead  blowed  off." 

The  trouble  with  the  people  is  not  far  to  seek,  of 
course,  and  a  trained  theologian  might  discover  it  at 
once.  They  had  an  antiquated  doctrine  of  prayer.  They 
understood  that  its  primary  function  was  to  secure  fa- 
vors and  things  from  God,  that  it  has  an  objective  effect 
by  securing  a  special  Providence  for  the  elect  who  resort 
to  it  or  have  it  resorted  to  for  them.  This  is  founded, 
of  course,  on  a  misconception  of  the  nature  of  God  and 
His  dealing  with  men.  "They  think,"  says  a  chaplain, 
"that  religion  is  mostly  concerned  with,  self -saving. 
They  tend  to  recognize  most  easily  the  signs  of  God's 
favor  in  this  or  that  instance  of  safety  or  escape."  A 
soldier  on  the  Somme,  who  had  fallen  on  the  field,  gave 
to  his  chaplain  a  copy  of  the  91st  Psalm,  with  the  remark 
that  it  was  his  handbook.  "Yet  by  itself,"  says  the 
padre,  "the  91st  Psalm,  though  a  wonderful  expression 
of  trust  in  God,  promises  a  security  to  which  our  Lord, 
and  others  akin  to  Him  in  spirit,  have  not  put  their  seal. 
He  did  not  ask — He  resisted  the  temptation  to  ask — 
that  no  evil  should  happen  to  Him,  nor  that  angels 
should  bear  Him  in  their  hands  lest  he  should  hurt  His 
foot  against  a  stone.  He  would  not  have  men  set  their 
face  in  the  day  of  battle  in  the  assurance  that,  though  a 
thousand  should  fall  beside  them  and  ten  thousand  at 


THE  RELIGIOUS  SITUATION  111 

their  right  hand,  the  same  lot  should  not  come  nigh 
them." 

The  right  minded  person  who  resorted  to  prayer  as  a 
spiritual  exercise,  as  communion  with  the  Infinite,  and 
for  the  purpose  of  securing  its  subjective  benefits  of 
comfort,  hope,  and  strength  encountered  no  such  stress 
of  heart  in  the  emergency.  And  the  theologian  would 
want  to  inform  all  others  that  their  difficulty  was  not 
with  prayer  but  with  a  misconception  of  it.  But  it 
must  be  remembered  that  the  people  are  holding  the  doc- 
trine that  has  been  taught  them,  and  they  have  more 
right  to  abuse  the  theologian  than  the  theologian  has  to 
abuse  them.  The  lofty  theory  of  prayer  as  communion 
conferring  subjective  benefits  has  not  been  understood  by 
the  rank  and  file ;  we  can,  in  fact,  say  that  it  is  not  the 
doctrine  of  the  Church.  As  Mr.  H.  G.  Wells  says,  the 
doctrine  of  prayer  as  a  process  of  begging  God  for  spe- 
cial favors  would  not  be  admitted  by  the  Hibbert  Jour- 
nal, but  it  is  freely  proclaimed  by  the  parish  leaflet ;  and 
the  leaflet,  rather  than  the  Hillert  Journal,  establishes 
the  standard  of  ideas  for  the  rank  and  file.  This  war 
has  sufficed  to  destroy  the  faith  of  people  in  prayer  as 
thus  understood,  and  since  the  multitudes  have  difficulty 
in  reaching  a  more  spiritual  understanding  they  have  be- 
come involved  in  doubt  and  obscurity.  From  this  con- 
fusion here  there  must  issue  a  more  spiritual  type  of 
faith,  just  as  a  spiritual  religion  must  issue  from  simi- 
lar confusions  in  other  departments. 

The  prevailing  state  of  intellectual  confusion  in  re- 
gard to  religion  is  caused  further  by  the  uncertainty  as 


SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

to  the  exact  status  of  Christianity  at  the  present  time. 
When  the  war  broke  out  there  was  a  wide-spread  cry 
that  Christianity  had  failed  and  been  discredited,  and 
since  the  fact  of  the  war  was  directly  opposed  to  the 
principles  of  our  faith  many  people  were  not  able  to 
preserve  their  hope  in  the  final  triumph  of  the  kingdom. 
The  rationalist  press,  aided  and  abetted  by  the  repre- 
sentatives of  isms  and  cults  of  various  kinds,  labored 
assiduously  to  spread  such  doubts  and  to  make  the  roar 
of  the  war  serve  as  the  requiem  of  our  religion.  As  the 
war  progressed  the  discontent  with  the  Church  began 
to  spread  and  the  clergy  fell  more  and  more  into  dis- 
repute. All  of  this  tended  to  fasten  upon  the  minds  of 
the  people  a  fear  or  a  belief  that  Christianity  had  finally 
broken  down  and  would  ultimately  be  discarded.  This 
thought  found  lodgment  in  the  breasts  of  some  of  the 
most  devout  people,  and  the  ensuing  confusion  has 
worked  much  to  the  detriment  of  religion. 

Perhaps  the  trouble  here  lies  in  the  fact  that  we  have 
no  well-defined  doctrine  or  conception  of  teleology.  We 
do  not  know  exactly  where  the  world  is  going  or  where  it 
ought  to  go.  Even  to-day  most  Christians  have  no  under- 
standing of  the  kingdom  of  God,  its  elements  or  the  proc- 
esses of  its  achievements.  Premillenarians  have  taught 
that  the  world  must  go  to  hell  before  the  kingdom  comes ; 
others  have  understood  our  gospel  to  be  wholly  personal 
and  the  kingdom  to  be  a  heaven  in  which  saved  persons 
are  to  be  taken ;  still  others  have  had  visions  of  a  social 
kingdom  and  have  urged  a  social  service  activity  of  a 
superficial  kind  as  the  sum  of  all  Christian  ideals.  But 


THE  RELIGIOUS  SITUATION  113 

neither  school  has  worked  out  its  doctrines  into  a  system- 
atic theology,  or  even  .given  a  program  that  could  ap- 
peal to  the  religious  needs  of  the  world  or  of  the  indi- 
vidual life.  The  old  theology  set  the  standard  for  such 
uncertainty,  for  it  failed  to  give  its  devotees  a  reasonahle 
doctrine  of  teleology.  It  pictured  a.  perfect  world,  then 
the  fall  of  man  and  the  world  into  sin,  then  a  long  proc-* 
ess  of  coming  back  to  perfection,  then  the  end  of  the 
order.  In  this  scheme  there  was  no  moral  evolution, 
since  the  highest  hope  of  the  race  was  to  get  back  to  the 
point  from  which  it  started.  It  worked  in  a  circle.  So 
we  really  had  no  vital  doctrine  of  teleology,  and  in  this 
situation  one  can  scarcely  blame  Bergson  for  making  a 
philosophy  and  leaving  it  out  altogether. 

It  is,  indeed,  a  difficult  task  to  harmonize  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine  of  a  coming  social  kingdom  with  our  ideas 
of  a  Christian  personal  life.  In  fact,  it  cannot  be  done 
at  all  on  the  basis  of  the  old  ideas  of  authority  and  literal 
interpretation.  The  hearts  of  millions  are  thrilling  to- 
day at  the  thought  of  a  coming  kingdom,  and  such  peo- 
ple can  behold  the  war  as  the  leading  factor  in  such  a 
kingdom.  The  war  will  mean  the  destruction  of  autoc- 
racy and  the  enthronement  of  democracy,  the  reign  of 
brotherhood  and  equality;  it  will  mean  a  new  world,  a 
better  civilization,  a  new  appreciation  of  the  spiritual 
ideas  of  freedom  and  justice,  a  better  evaluation  of  man. 
"No  person  has  difficulty  in  thinking  that  the  war  will 
mean  this.  But  nearly  all  of  us  have  difficulty  in  believ- 
ing that  this  is  Christianity.  In  a  dim  sort  of  way  we 
understand  that  Christ  would  be  pleased  to  have  such  a 


SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

world,  and  that  we  will  have  gone  a  long  way  in  the 
general  direction  of  His  social  kingdom  when  this  comes 
to  pass.  Yet  we  hesitate  to  proclaim  that  this  awful 
war  is  Christ's  method  of  ushering  in  His  kingdom,  and 
when  one  does  have  the  courage  to  thus  proclaim  we  are 
somewhat  shocked  even  though  we  know  he  is  telling 
the  truth.  Our  trouble  is  that  we  are  in  a  strait  between 
the  doctrine  of  a  social  kingdom  and  the  doctrine  of  a 
personal  life.  We  want  to  preserve  both,  yet  we  hesi- 
tate to  make  either  supreme.  In  after  years,  when  the 
horrors  of  this  conflict  have  passed  away  and  its  benefits 
have  been  realized,  perhaps  we  shall  understand.  Per- 
haps we  shall  then  see  that  men  are  not  so  valuable  as 
principles,  and  that  great  civilizing  movements  are 
worth  what  they  cost.  This  is  the  doctrine  of  Christ. 
It  was  on  this  platform  that  He  taught,  lived,  and  died ; 
His  history  will  bear  no  other  interpretation. 

We  must  not  confuse  patriotism  with  Christianity  nor 
make  Christ  an  international  politician ;  but  we  can  be- 
lieve that  the  kingdom  will  not  come  until  the  doctrines 
which  were  incarnate  in  the  German  Empire,  doctrines 
of  force,  autocracy,  ruthlessness,  barbarism,  have  been 
eradicated  once  for  all.  And  when  these  ideas  take 
physical  shape  they  can  only  be  met  physically.  It  in- 
volves us  in  contradictions,  uncertainties,  anxiety,  and 
doubt,  to  be  sure,  but  it  is  no  time  for  Christians  to  be 
discouraged  or  to  admit  that  their  religion  has  been 
discredited. 

Along  the  same  line  we  meet  the  fact  that  the  war  has 
bred  sentiments  so  different  from  religious  sentiments 


THE  RELIGIOUS  SITUATION  115 

that  these  have  added  to  the  confusion  and  the  discard- 
ing of  religion.  And  here  we  are  not  able  to  make  any 
defense  or  adjustment ;  we  can  simply  plead  the  frailty 
of  human  flesh.  The  person  who  goes  from  a  neutral 
country,  or  even  from  America  at  the  present  time,  to 
any  of  the  belligerent  nations  of  Europe  will  be  amazed 
at  the  hatred  which  flames  everywhere.  The  Germans 
have  not  been  the  only  ones  to  sing  a  "Hymn  of  Hate" ; 
the  French  have  done  the  same,  and  so  have  others,  al- 
though they  have  not  been  so  deliberate  nor  so  frenzied 
in  their  hatred  as  the  Germans.  Racial  antagonism  of 
the  most  bitter  type  has  overthrown  all  sentiments  of 
brotherhood  as  they  applied  to  other  nations.  Murder 
and  blood  are  in  the  air.  Immorality  has  become  so 
flagrant  that  its  very  commonness  has  robbed  it  of  its 
repulsion,  and  a  general  lowering  of  the  moral  tone  has 
resulted.  Liquor  drinking,  vulgarity,  profanity,  and 
sexual  looseness  are  tolerated  with  the  utmost  compla- 
cency. "I  never  knew  a  chaplain/'  a  soldier  can  write, 
"to  refuse  his  drink,  his  cigarette,  or  to  sit  in  a  little 
game,"  and  when  a  clergyman  scatters  "damns"  through 
a  book  which  he  publishes  no  one  thinks  of  complaining. 
These  sentiments,  and  others  like  them,  are  not  the  senti- 
ments of  religion,  yet  they  are  the  prevailing  sentiments 
of  the  day.  And  religion  suffers  accordingly,  for  the  peo- 
ple seem  to  understand  that  it  is  no  time  to  attempt  re- 
ligion seriously,  so  far  at  least  as  its  stricter  morality  is 
concerned. 

They  are  quite  aware  that  to  be  religious  would  mean 
that  such  sentiments  were  to  be  set  aside,  and  even  would 


116        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

have  to  be  opposed.  Therefore  they  let  religion  go,  since 
few  are  in  a  condition  of  mind  to  attempt  a  strenuous  op- 
position. In  fact,  to  be  religious  in  Europe  to-day  seems 
to  many  people  to  imply  a  task  too  large  to  be  attempted. 
One  may  well  hesitate,  for  example,  before  he  urges  a 
solution  of  the  problems  raised  by  the  scourge  of  im- 
morality which  has  swept  Europe.  To  be  sure,  to  use 
chaste  language,  to  refuse  to  gamble,  to  be  a  total  ab- 
stainer from  intoxicants,  to  keep  the  Sabbath,  to  pray 
night  and  morning,  to  protest  wickedness — to  do  these 
things  in  the  armies  to-day  would  require  as  much  cour- 
age as  the  martyrs  possessed.  It  is  too  big  a  job  to  be 
religious,  so  religion  can  be  set  aside  until  after  the  war 
— this  seems  to  be  the  attitude.  And  it  is  heightened  by 
the  fact  that  it  seems  to  prevail  in  the  minds  of  the  re- 
ligious leaders  of  the  world.  The  Church  preaches  no 
vital  morality  to-day,  and  many  of  the  chaplains  in  the 
army  stand  ready  to  palliate  the  moral  delinquencies  of 
the  soldiers,  to  excuse  and  even  defend  them.  And  this 
has  the  double  effect  of  confirming  the  men  in  their  sins 
and  at  the  same  time  causing  them  to  lose  respect  for 
their  religious  leaders. 

The  religious  situation  among  the  soldiers  themselves 
is  perhaps  more  important  than  the  general  situation  as 
it  pertains  to  the  churches,  because  of  the  number  of 
men  under  arms  and  because  their  popularity  will  give 
them  the  power  to  shape  the  controlling  ideas  of  the  fu- 
ture. One  cannot,  of  course,  state  the  soldier's  attitude 
toward  religion  in  a  word ;  it  is  undefinable  and  it  varies 
with  different  men  and  in  different  situations.  Speaking 


THE  RELIGIOUS  SITUATION  117 

very  broadly,  perhaps  we  may  say  that  the  average  sol- 
dier neither  knows  nor  cares  much  for  religion.  He 
"carries  on"  in  accordance  with  his  own  desires  and 
tastes.  In  a  general  way  he  is  interested  in  the  talks 
at  the  welfare  hut,  but  if  nothing  were  there  but  the 
talks  he  would  not  darken  its  door.  He  smokes  and 
swears  day  in  and  day  out,  nor  thinks  his  profanity  an 
offense  to  God.  When  the  time  comes  to  "go  out"  he  be- 
comes very  serious,  reads  his  Testament,  thinks  of  home, 
and  prays;  if  he  comes  back  alive  his  seriousness  gives 
way  and  he  "carries  on"  as  usual.  It  is  impossible  for 
one  who  is  interested  in  the  future  of  religion,  and  who 
wants  to  see  a  revival  of  spirituality,  to  obtain  much 
comfort  from  the  religious  attitude  of  the  soldiers  in  the 
field  to-day.  Detached  instances  of  faithfulness  and 
conversion  are,  of  course,  recorded,  but  no  general  spirit 
of  evangelism  is  evident. 

There  appears  an  attempt  in  some  quarters  to  deny 
this,  and  to  make  out  that  this  war  has  given  great  impe- 
tus to  religion,  but  when  one  investigates  these  attempts 
he  will  soon  see  that  it  can  be  accomplished  only  by 
denaturing  religion,  separating  it  from  morality,  and 
making  it  synonymous  with  patriotism  and  courage.  Ac- 
cording to  the  most  reliable  statistics  we  have,  only  20 
per  cent,  of  the  men  now  under  arms  had  any  con- 
nection with  the  Church  before  the  war,  and  half  of  the 
number  have  fallen  away  from  their  ideals  and  are  not 
now  classed  as  Christians. 

In  the  name  of  religion  a  protest  should  be  uttered 
against  a  prevalent  charity  and  forbearance  on  the  part 


118        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

of  clergymen  which  goes  to  the  length  of  excusing  sins. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  be  uncharitable  or  to  underestimate 
the  strength  of  temptation  when  one  lives  an  unnatural 
life  in  order  to  hold  to  moral  standards.  The  men  who 
adopt  such  an  attitude  are  the  real  enemies  of  religion, 
and  they  are  failing  to  be  the  real  friends  of  the  boys. 
A  distressing  feature  of  our  religious  life  for  the  last 
generation  has  been  the  fact  that  the  Church  has  lowered 
her  standards,  and  we  will  suffer  immeasurably  if  we 
allow  millions  of  men  to  return  from  the  battle  field  with 
ideas  that  immorality  does  not  matter  much,  that  it  is 
not  condemned  by  those  who  speak  for  religion  and  the 
Church.  Whatever  happens  to  us,  we  must  not  forget 
that  it  is  wrong  to  sin. 

Allied  to  this  error  is  a  disposition  on  the  part  of 
these  same  religious  leaders  to  make  a  religion  out  of  ele- 
ments that  are  not  religious,  at  least  that  are  not  dis- 
tinctly Christian.  Thus  we  are  told  that  the  men  are 
really  religious,  although  they  may  not  know  it ;  they  do 
not  know  much  about  God  and  Christ  and  spirituality, 
but  they  display  superhuman  courage,  they  are  unsel- 
fish, they  are  cheerful,  they  are  brotherly,  they  are  pa- 
triots. These  are  admirable  traits  to  be  sure,  and  men 
will  not  be  very  religious  without  them,  but  their  pos- 
session is  compatible  with  the  rankest  infidelity  and  sin- 
fulness.  Sherwood  Eddy  says  the  men  have  five  virtues 
— courage,  brotherliness,  generosity,  straightforward- 
ness, and  cheerfulness — and  five  moral  weaknesses — im- 
purity, obscenity  and  profanity,  drunkenness,  gambling, 
and  a  lack  of  moral  courage.  Few  people  will  really  be- 


THE  RELIGIOUS  SITUATION  119 

lieve  that  there  is  much  vital  religion  represented  by  the 
five  virtues  as  long  as  the  five  vices  exist.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  there  has  never  been  a  war,  even  among 
the  worst  pagans,  when  men  did  not  display  courage  and 
patriotism,  and  the  inevitable  conclusion  seems  to  be 
that  no  Christianity  is  needed  to  produce  these  things. 
And  yet  some  of  our  modern  chaplains  make  them  the 
very  essence  of  our  religion;  chaplains,  so  says  Eddy, 
have  widely  preached  the  idea  that  death  in  battle  saves. 
("With  Our  Soldiers  in  France."  Chap,  vii.) 

The  following  statement  from  a  chaplain  seems  a 
frank  and  fair  statement  of  the  religious  situation  among 
the  soldiers :  "There  is  not  a  great  revival  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion  at  the  front.  Deep  in  their  hearts  is  a  great 
trust  and  faith  in  God.  It  is  an  inarticulate  faith  ex- 
pressed in  deeds.  The  top  levels,  as  it  were,  of  their  con- 
sciousness, are  much  filled  with  grumbling  and  foul 
language  and  physical  occupations ;  but  beneath  lie  deep 
spiritual  springs,  whence  issue  their  cheerfulness,  stub- 
bornness, patience,  generosity,  humility,  and  willingness 
to  suffer  and  to  die.  There  is  religion  about ;  only,  very 
often  it  is  not  the  Christian  religion.  Eather  it  is  natu- 
ral religion.  It  is  the  expression  of  a  craving  for  se- 
curity. Literally  it  is  a  looking  for  salvation."  Here 
is*  a  situation  which  is  charged  with  promise  if  it  could 
be  met  fully  and  frankly.  The  first  step  should  be  to 
translate  this  natural  religion  into  Christianity,  for  this 
so-called  "natural  religion"  rife  in  our  society  to-day 
furnishes  the  animus  of  most  of  the  attacks  upon  the 
Church  and  Christianity.  It  is  everywhere  issuing  in 


120        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

materialism,  and  if  these  soldiers  return  with  this  de- 
tached and  undefined  sentiment  it  will  bode  no  good  for 
our  social  order.  It  does  not  deserve  the  praise  that  is 
being  heaped  upon  it. 

The  fact  that  it  is  not  Christian  is  not  really  the  fault 
of  the  men ;  rather  is  it  the  fault  of  those  whom  we  have 
sent  to  be  the  religious  guides  of  the  men.  They  have 
lowered  standards  and  been  content  with  too  little, 
thereby  practicing  a  deception  upon  the  men  themselves. 
They  come  from  the  Church,  but  the  men  feel  that  the 
Church  cares  nothing  for  them,  and  while  they  revere 
Christ  they  identify  the  Christian  Church  with  a  re- 
spectability that  is  not  unlike  the  Phariseeism  that 
Christ  denounced.  The  problem  that  is  before  us  at 
the  present  time  is  to  make  the  world  understand  that 
our  religion,  as  the  Church  interprets  it,  comes  from 
Christ — and  this  means  that  our  interpretation  must  be 
changed.  "I  am  sure,"  says  a  chaplain,  "that  the  soldier 
has  got  religion,  I  am  sure  that  he  has  Christianity ;  but 
he  does  not  know  he  has  Christianity."  The  task  is  to 
make  him  know  he  has  Christianity,  that  our  religion, 
stripped  of  the  extraneous  ideas  we  have  wrapped  about 
it,  embodies  all  the  things  which  he  regards  as  high,  holy, 
and  noble.  Our  danger  is  that  we  will  so  lower  our  stand- 
ards that  our  religion  will  be  emasculated  by  its  friends, 
that  the  soldiers  will  reject  it,  and  that  they  will  come 
back  with  their  "natural  religion,"  their  religion  that  is 
not  moral,  and  fasten  upon  us  materialism,  unbelief, 
and  a  shadowy  semblance  of  idealism  that  goes  under 
the  name  of  spirituality  and  faith. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  SITUATION  121 

Keligion  will  survive  this  war,  but  it  may  not  be  the 
same  kind  of  religion  we  have  had — and  that  may  be  a 
ground  of  hope.  Men  are  learning  that  experiences 
come  in  which  they  cannot  escape  God,  and  never  have 
they  felt  such  a  need  of  Him  in  the  soul.  And  we  have 
faith  to  believe  that  this  religion  will  be  the  Christian 
religion.  But  reconstructions  of  the  most  radical  sort 
will  have  to  be  made  if  we  are  to  catch  up  in  the  breast 
of  the  Church  the  religious  sentiments  of  humanity  and 
use  the  Church  to  give  them  expression  in  the  service  of 
the  race.  It  is  too  much  to  say  at  this  time  that  the 
reconstructions  can  be  easily  made;  we  are  not  able  at 
the  present  time  to  tell  what  will  be  demanded.  The 
indications  are  not  satisfactory,  this  we  know.  Iti seems 
likely  that  the  new  turn  of  religious  affairs,  the  recon- 
structions necessary,  will  be  opposed  by  the  Church. 
It  has  opposed  such  changes  before,  and  in  so  doing  it 
has  been  its  own  worst  enemy.  Already  it  is  being 
charged  with  getting  ready  to  preach  after  the  war  the 
same  old  platitudes  which  it  preached  before  the  war. 
If  it  does  this  we  may  safely  predict  that  the  breach 
between  itself  and  the  people — already  wide — will  be 
broadened.  Strong  forces  on  the  other  side  are  striving 
for  that  very  thing,  seeking  to  make  the  people  still 
more  discontented  with  the  Church,  their  hope  being  to 
establish  this  "natural  religion,"  with  neither  organiza- 
tion nor  priesthood — with  nothing  but  a  "finite  God." 
But  can  this  be  done?  What  will  happen  to  the  re- 
ligious and  moral  interests  of  society  when  it  has  no  or- 
ganization through  which  to  express  its  faith  in  action, 


SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

and  when  its  God  has  shrunk  to  the  size  of  Mr.  Wells' 
deity  ?  The  proceeding  has  always  failed ;  it  has  always 
resulted  in  confusion,  despair,  ignorance,  and  crime. 
Our  God  must  he  trigger,  not  smaller.  And,  in  some 
form  or  other,  the  Church  must  be  preserved  to  height- 
en, to  propagate,  and  to  express  the  spiritual  sentiments 
of  the  heart  of  humanity. 

There  has  been  a  vast  deal  of  speculation  and  theory 
expended  on  the  matter  of  the  soldier's  attitude  toward 
the  Church  and  religion,  and  the  learned  conclusions 
have  given  great  joy  to  the  rationalists  and  anxiety  to 
the  Churchman.  Most  of  the  time  and  sentiment  thus 
devoted  might  well  have  been  spared  if  persons  had 
borne  in  mind  that  the  soldier  is  simply  the  average 
young  man  whom  we  have  always  known.  The  young 
man  never  was  very  religious  and  never  had  any  close 
connection  with  the  Church,  and  since  donning  his  uni- 
form he  remains  the  same  kind  of  person.  Why  should 
the  Church  be  so  concerned  over  his  attitude  to-day  when 
she  did  not  seem  to  care  about  him  yesterday?  Why 
does  the  rationalist  cry  out  that  the  Church  must  die 
because  the  soldiers  are  not  in  its  membership  when  the 
same  fact  afforded  him  no  comfort  when  the  soldier 
wore  his  "civies"  ?  The  Church  is  in  no  greater  danger 
now  from  this  source  than  she  has  always  been ;  indeed 
the  Church  is  much  better  established  in  this  quarter, 
for  although  the  war  has  not  converted  the  soldier  it  has 
made  him  more  appreciative  of  the  real  values  in  social 
life. 

When  a  person  returns  to  America  after  an  experi- 


THE  RELIGIOUS  SITUATION 

ence  with  the  American  forces  in  the  field  he  is  at  once 
subjected  to  a  cross-examination  concerning  the  morals 
and  general  behavior  of  the  soldiers.  He  can  tell  in  ad- 
vance what  the  questions  are  to  be:  Are  the  men  re- 
ligious as  they  go  under  fire  ?  Do  they  drink,  gamble, 
swear,  or  practice  immorality  in  the  towns  and  villages  ? 
Are  they  becoming  degenerates  or  will  they  return  with 
higher  moral  conceptions  than  when  they  went  away  ? 
These  and  similar  questions  are  fired  at  one  from  all 
sides.  Every  social  institution  which  we  have  seems 
planning  for  big  things  when  the  boys  come  home.  The 
Church  seems  especially  interested  in  their  .welfare  at 
the  present  time.  This  is  a  thing  which  the  men  them- 
selves seem  unable  to  appreciate,  for  they  are  well  aware 
that  the  Church  took  no  extraordinary  interest  in  them 
when  they  were  at  home*  in  civilian  life.  But  now  that 
duty  has  called  them  and  they  have  responded,  when 
they  are  displaying  a  courage,  a  self-sacrifice,  a  devo- 
tion, and  an  unselfishness  the  like  of  which  the  world 
never  knew  before,  the  Church  at  once  becomes  extreme- 
ly solicitous  for  their  moral  welfare.  Now  the  Amer- 
ican soldier  is  the  wisest  person  imaginable.  It  is  ab- 
solutely impossible  to  "fool"  him  about  anything.  He 
detects  insincerity  and  camouflage  instantly.  He  re- 
sents flattery  in  all  its  forms.  He  is  alive  to  all  that  is 
going  on  about  him,  and  woe  unto  that  organization  or 
institution  which  seeks  to  capitalize  his  influence  or 
build  upon  him  after  the  war.  He  has  a  passion  for 
genuineness,  he  hates  shams,  he  despises  narrowness  and 
littleness  with  his  whole  soul.  Therefore,  it  might  as 


124         SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

well  be  said  very  plainly  that  the  newly-born  interest 
of  the  religious  forces  of  the  country  in  the  soldier  will 
benefit  said  forces  little  unless  it  be  coupled  with  a  re- 
construction of  doctrine,  message,  methods,  and  life. 

I  think  I  can  set  forth  in  a  few  words  the  gen- 
eral character  of  the  American  soldier  overseas,  as  com- 
pared with  the  young  men  we  have  always  known  at 
home.  The  man  overseas  is  an  inveterate  cigarette 
smoker  and  the  most  profane  individual  to  be  found  any- 
where— this  is  the  worst  that  can  be  said  of  him.  In 
this  regard  he  is  much  worse  than  he  was  at  home,  if  we 
consider  cigarette  smoking  and  profanity  as  vices,  or 
even  as  bad  habits.  But  he  does  not  drink  very  much,  he 
is  seldom  seen  under  the  influence  of  liquor,  he  gambles 
a  little,  and,  he  does  not  indulge  in  sexual  immorality 
to  any  large  degree.  In  these  details  he  is  a  better  man 
than  he  was  at  home,  better  than  the  young  man  who  is 
still  in  civilian  life.  This  about  sums  up  the  situation. 
The  soldier  has  little  opportunity  to  commit  sins  other 
than  those  named;  in  fact  those  of  the  fighting  armies 
have  little  chance  to  commit  sins  of  any  kind. 

In  regard  to  the  profanity  of  the  soldier,  there  is 
little  to  be  said  in  defense  of  it.  This  is  the  most  fool- 
ish and  inexcusable  of  all  bad  habits  which  human  flesh 
is  heir  to,  but  it  is  practically  universal  in  our  army. 
I  have  had  a  wide  association  with  men  of  all  the  allied 
armies,  and  I  say  without  hesitation  that  our  men  are 
the  worst  "cussers"  in  Europe.  They  swear  without  any 
provocation;  in  their  ordinary  conversation  they  punc- 
tuate their  remarks  with  an  elaborate  and  artistic  array 


THE  RELIGIOUS  SITUATION 

of  oaths.  And  they  are  teaching  the  French  to  use  our 
American  swear-words  also;  it  is  nothing  unusual  to 
hear  little  boys  and  little  girls  bandying  these  expres- 
sions about  on  the  streets.  On  one  occasion  when  a 
young  lady  inquired  the  meaning  of  a  certain  vulgar 
word  the  soldier,  covered  with  embarrassment,  informed 
her  that  it  meant  "very  nice/'  the  same  as  "tres  jolie" ; 
and  the  result  was  that  the  young  lady  applied  it  to  a 
medical  officer  who  had  kindly  bandaged  her  finger.  One 
day  a  ministerial  Y.  M.  C.  A.  secretary  gave  a  small  tip 
to  a  French  barber  and  received  in  return  a  smile  and  a 

"Thank  you,  s !"     In  a  certain  sector  great 

strictness  was  being  observed  in  regard  to  the  pass  word, 
and  the  report  gained  currency  that  the  sentries  had 
orders  to  fire  without  question  on  any  person  who  did 
not  immediately  answer  his  challenge  with  the  proper 
word.  A  young  French  lieutenant  strayed  out  of  his 
dug-out  one  night  and  was  challenged  by  the  soldier  on 
guard.  Instantly  he  remembered  the  situation  and  his 
blood  froze  within  him  at  the  prospect  of  instant  death, 
for  he  was  without  the  pass  word,  and  he  involuntarily 
ejaculated,  "God  damn."  The  sentry,  who  knew  the 
man,  was  convulsed  with  laughter  and  said,  "Pass,  Lieu- 
tenant." Ever  afterward  the  officer  declared  that  he 
would  use  American  oaths  as  long  as  he  lived,  because 
this  expression  had  saved  his  life. 

On  my  first  visit  to  the  war  zones  I  heard  the  British 
chaplains  and  welfare  workers  excusing  their  men  for 
swearing,  and  I  believed  that  this  attitude  constituted  a 
distinct  lowering  of  their  moral  ideas,  out  of  motives 


126        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

of  affection  for  the  soldiers.  But  when  I  had  lived  inti- 
mately with  the  soldiers  for  several  months  I  learned 
that  in  fact  the  hahit  did  not  argue  any  especial  irrev- 
erence on  the  part  of  the  men.  The  hest  of  them  do  it ; 
even  those  who  are  active  in  religious  matters  are  accom- 
plished "cussers."  They  are  living  under  a  mighty  ten- 
sion, they  feel  deeply,  and  they  have  powerful  thoughts ; 
nothing  but  the  strongest  language  they  can  command 
is  sufficient  to  express  their  sentiments.  This,  as  nearly 
as  I  can  determine,  is  the  explanation  of  the  prevalence 
of  profanity.  As  hard  as  it  may  be  for  the  average 
moralist  to  understand  and  appreciate  the  situation,  it 
is  nevertheless  a  fact  that  the  soldier  who  swears  so 
recklessly  does  not  mean  a  word  he  says  and  has  not  the 
faintest  idea  of  taking  the  name  of  the  Deity  in  vain. 
For  he  loves  and  respects  God,  and  has  a  powerful  con- 
sciousness of  His  presence  and  power. 

One  evening  I  was  conducting  a  religious  service, 
and  the  men  had  flocked  in  by  hundreds,  as  they  always 
do  when  conditions  permit  an  assembly.  I  had  a  quar- 
tette of  men  who  were  to  sing  some  of  the  familiar 
hymns.  A  fervent  atmosphere  of  spirituality  pervaded 
the  place  when  the  men  arose  to  sing.  There  was  no 
musical  instrument  and  the  men,  in  pitching  their  voices, 
struck  a  scale  altogether  too  low.  They  uttered  a  few 
words  and  then  stopped  suddenly,  and  the  leader  re- 
marked, "O  hell,  that  is  too  damned  low!"  The  men 
seemed  to  take  the  remark  as  a  matter  of  fact  and  it  in 
no  way  spoiled  the  spirit  of  the  occasion. 

There  was  a  sergeant  in  a  certain  company  wEo  was 


THE  RELIGIOUS  SITUATION 

unspeakably  profane,  and  the  chaplain  had  often  de- 
clared his  intention  to  "call  down"  the  fellow.  One 
day  he  was  heard  making  the  air  blue  behind  the  dug- 
out, and  the  chaplain  seized  the  opportunity.  But  when 
he  sought  the  sergeant's  presence  there  was  no  oppor- 
tunity at  all.  The  man  was  cursing  a  soldier  who  had 
in  his  possession  a  package  of  obscene  postal  cards,  bear- 
ing pictures  of  a  vile  sort.  The  sergeant,  with  an  ad- 
mirable string  of  oaths,  was  declaring  that  any  soldier 
who  would  carry  such  pictures  was  a  disgrace  to  the 
United  States  army,  and  in  conclusion  he  took  from  his 
pocket  a  N~ew  Testament  and  remarked:  "If  you  want 
to  carry  something  why  don't  you  get  one  of  these 
damned  Bibles;  a  man  who  carries  one  of  these  will 
never  go  far  wrong."  Naturally,  the  subject  matter  of 
his  discourse  disarmed  the  chaplain ! 

Those  who  for  propaganda  purposes  or  otherwise  have 
been  responsible  for  rumors  to  the  effect  that  the  Amer- 
ican soldiers  in  France  are  becoming  addicted  to  the  use 
of  intoxicating  liquors  have  been  most  unjust  to  these 
men  and  have  rendered  the  country  a  distinct  disservice. 
While  the  motives  of  those  concerned  were  no  doubt  le- 
gitimate, the  circulation  of  these  reports  tended  to  de- 
moralize our  own  spirit  and  to  give  aid  and  comfort  to 
the  enemy.  From  a  close  knowledge  of  the  soldier  in  all 
the  situations  in  which  he  ever  finds  himself,  I  can 
contradict  the  word  of  any  man  who  accuses  him  of 
drunkenness.  He  does  not  drink  to  any  appreciable  de- 
gree; of  the  hundreds  of  thousands  I  have  seen  I  can 
recall  but  three  who  showed  any  effects  of  drink.  This 


128        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

is  not  to  say  that  lie  is  a  total  abstainer;  it  is  to  say 
that  he  drinks  far  less  over  there  than  he  did  in  civilian 
life  at  home.  And  the  wines  and  beers  that  are  used 
have  been  so  "denatured"  that  they  have  little  effect 
upon  the  drinker.  The  fighting  forces  at  the  front,  offi- 
cers and  men,  are  forbidden  to  buy  champagne,  although 
they  can  purchase  the  lighter  drinks  during  certain  hours 
of  the  day;  the  villages  are  under  martial  law,  and  for 
the  most  part  the  men  have  their  canteens  filled  with 
beer  at  the  estaminet  and  consume  it  in  the  seclusion  of 
their  billets.  All  in  all,  the  evils  of  intoxication  among 
our  overseas  forces  are  so  slight  as  to  be  almost  negli- 
gible. 

And,  without  going  into  an  unsavory  subject  or  quot- 
ing meaningless  statistics,  the  same  is  true  of  sexual  im- 
morality. Venereal  disease  has  been  practically  eradi- 
cated ;  the  problem  is  as  nothing  in  comparison  with  the 
same  problem  in  the  camps  and  civilian  population  at 
home.  The  use  of  the  prophylactic  preventative  has 
been  largely  responsible  for  this,  it  is  true,  yet  the  clean 
lives  of  the  men  is  the  leading  element.  In  the  very 
worst  places,  like  Liverpool  and  other  centers  in  Eng- 
land, and  England  is  far  worse  than  France,  the  infor- 
mation I  received  tended  to  establish  the  fact  that  about 
25  per  cent,  of  the  men  received  prophylactic  each 
month,  this  including  all  the  repeaters.  Near  the  front 
lines  in  France  the  percentage  drops  until  it  practically 
disappears.  The  use  of  prophylactic  has  been  the  sub- 
ject of  heated  discussions  pro  and  con,  the  antagonists 
insisting  that  it  is  a  virtual  encouragement  of  immoral 


AMERICAN   LUMBERMEN   IN    THE   SCOTCH    HIGHLANDS 

THE  FIRST  CONTINGENT  OF  THE   A.   E.   F.   TO  LAND  ON  EUROPEAN   SOIL 


Y.    M.   C.  A.    HUT  IN   THE   WOODS 

MILES  FROM  ANY  TOWN  OR  HABITATION 


THE  RELIGIOUS  SITUATION  129 

practices  by  an  offer  of  protection  on  the  part  of  the 
government.  However  this  may  be,  its  use  has  reduced 
disease  almost  to  the  vanishing  point. 

The  leading  preventative  of  immorality  among  the 
men  is  their  own  strong  moral  consciousness,  very 
marked  and  easily  discerned.  But  this  consciousness  is 
not  narrow  and  does  not  concern  itself  with  trivial  de- 
tails. They  have  denned  it  themselves,  very  clearly  and 
very  strikingly.  The  welfare  workers  who  had  been 
preaching  and  moralizing  to  the  boys  had  concerned 
themselves  with  what  they  regarded  as  the  cardinal  sins : 
profanity,  gambling,  drunkenness,  and  sexual  immoral- 
ity. But  while  they  harped  on  these  things  constantly, 
they  secured  little  interest  on  the  part  of  the  soldiers 
themselves.  At  last  cards  were  circulated  among  multi- 
plied thousands  of  the  men  and  they  were  asked  to  desig- 
nate what  they  regarded  as  the  five  most  repulsive  sins. 
The  answers  were  illuminating.  Neither  drunkenness, 
nor  gambling,  nor  profanity,  nor  vice  figured  in  the  re- 
plies. Heading  the  list  was  cowardice.  Then  came  sel- 
fishness. And  the  other  three  in  order  were  hypocrisy, 
disloyalty,  and  meanness.  It  will  be  noted  that  these  are 
all  sins  of  the  spirit,  and  when  these  "old  rooks,"  as  we 
used  to  call  them,  nailed  these  as  the  worst  of  all  sins, 
they  displayed  a  greater  profundity,  a  better  grasp  on 
the  fundamentals  of  the  moral  life,  than  any  of  the  pro- 
fessional moralists  who  had  presumed  to  lecture  them. 

Are  the  soldiers  religious  ?  No  one  can  hope  to  evade 
the  question.  The  answer  is  in  the  affirmative  if  by  re- 
ligion we  mean  a  pure  spirituality  based  on  a  recogni- 


130        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

tion  of  the  character  of  God.  The  answer  is  in  the 
negative  if  we  make  it  embrace  any  form  of  ecclesias- 
ticism,  dogmatism,  or  credal  orthodoxy.  In  the  former 
elements  the  men  are  firmly  grounded.  There  is  never 
one  who  does  not  recognize  God,  Christ,  human  need. 
They  all  carry  Bibles,  most  of  them  pray,  they  are  al- 
ways ready  to  attend  a  religious  service  or  talk  about 
religion  sincerely  and  without  the  slightest  trace  of  em- 
barrassment. But  they  care  very  little  about  the  Church, 
less  about  the  forms  of  religion,  and  still  less  about  doc- 
trines of  all  kinds.  It  is  not  that  they  antagonize  these 
things;  if  they  were  asked  about  them  they  would 
doubtless  reply  that  in  their  opinion  they  were  all  right ; 
but  they  simply  have  no  interest  in  them.  In  their 
mind  the  Church  and  creeds  obscure  rather  than  enhance 
the  real  values  of  faith,  and  it  is  not  possible  to  work  up 
in  their  souls  any  enthusiasm  for  anything  that  smacks 
of  ecclesiasticism.  As  surely  as  the  world  stands,  these 
men  will  absolutely  ignore  the  Church  on  their  return 
unless  the  Church  has  the  courage  and  consecration  to 
do  away  with  ecclesiasticism,  out-grown  notions  of  ortho- 
doxy, and  the  hollow  statements  of  doctrine  which  have 
not  had  any  content  in  a  hundred  years.  Personally,  I 
am  not  inclined  to  think  that  the  Church  will  do  this. 
But  the  choice  is  hers  to  make,  and  she  may  do  what 
she  chooses. 

But  the  soldier  has  a  vital  religious  consciousness 
which  embraces  all  the  fundamental  ideas  of  the  faith. 
I  remember  a  gathering  of  men  one  evening  in  an  old 
stable  in  a  town  where  we  were  billeted;  we  had  been 


THE  RELIGIOUS  SITUATION  131 

smoking,  telling  stories,  singing  snatches  of  popular 
songs,  and  enjoying  ourselves  generally.  Suddenly  a 
sergeant  entered  and  informed  the  men  that  the  bat- 
talion would  move  forward  into  the  lines  that  night. 
There  was  a  slight  pause  in  the  conversation;  some  of 
the  men  rose  to  leave  and  others  expressed  gratification 
at  the  news.  Then  one  of  the  soldiers  who  had  heen 
fumbling  a  song  book,  and  who  was  not  known  to  be 
religious  at  all,  called  out:  "Let's  sing  this  song!"  It 
was  an  old  hymn  beginning : 

Lead  on,  0  King  Eternal,  the  day  of  march  has  come; 
Henceforth  in  fields  of  conquest  thy  tents  shall  be  our  home. 
Through  days  of  preparation  thy  grace  has  made  us  strong, 
And  now,  0  King  Eternal,  we  lift  our  battle  song. 

The  men  sang  this  song  with  a  vim,  the  very  ring  of 
their  voices  attesting  their  sincerity  and  their  apprecia- 
tion of  the  sentiment. 

On  another  occasion  I  was  walking  through  the 
streets  of  Lironville  in  company  with  a  rather  rough 
sergeant,  dodging  here  and  there  behind  the  ruined  walls 
to  avoid  being  seen  by  the  enemy,  whose  lines  were  a 
few  rods  away.  We  passed  the  ruins  of  the  once  beau- 
tiful church,  terribly  wrecked  now,  and  on  glancing  up 
we  observed  that  the  cross  on  the  tower  was  still  intact. 
The  sergeant  gazed  about  at  the  devastation  by  which 
we  were  surrounded,  fixed  his  gaze  again  on  the  cross, 
lifted  his  hat,  and  quoted : 

In  the  Cross  of  Christ  I  glory, 
Towering  o'er  the  wrecks  of  time. 


132        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

When  I  first  joined  my  division  it  was  in  training  far 
behind  the  lines,  and  I  carefully  observed  the  religious 
sentiments  among  the  men.  Here  they  were  rowdy, 
boisterous,  seemingly  careless,  yet  there  was  always  a 
strain  of  deep  seriousness  present,  which  manifested  it- 
self on  all  occasions  when  religious  meetings  were  held. 
These  services  were  invariably  crowded.  Once  I  an- 
nounced a  Bible  Class  for  Sunday  morning  and  asked 
the  men  to  designate  a  subject  for  our  discussion.  With 
practical  unanimity  they  selected  the  commandment, 
"Thou  shalt  not  kill,"  and  in  the  discussion  I  was  sur- 
prised at  the  depth  of  understanding  with  which  they 
regarded  their  present  occupation  in  relation  to  the 
principles  of  our  religion. 

Within  a  week  the  division  moved,  for  the  first  time, 
to  the  battle  front.  When  the*  order  came  the  men 
gathered  again.  A  change  was  easily  noticeable.  They 
were  just  as  rowdy  as  before,  all.  were  glad  of  the  pros- 
pect before  them,  and  none  signified  any  desire  to  "be- 
come religious  simply  because  they  might  be  killed.  But 
the  latent  spiritual  impulses  of  their  natures  came  more 
to  the  surface,  and  nearly  all  of  them  took  advantage  of 
the  opportunity  to  express  their  faith,  to  get  a  new 
grasp  on  their  religion,  and  to  renew  their  allegiance  to 
the  spiritual  realities  of  the  universe. 

Week  after  week  I  have  gone  in  and  out  of  the  lines, 
to  the  farthest  outposts,  through  the  trenches,  in  the 
support  lines,  and  among  the  artillery  positions  in  the 
rear  of  the  lines.  It  was  almost  impossible  to  give 
away  New  Testaments  because  all  of  the  men  carried 


THE  RELIGIOUS  SITUATION 

them  in  their  pockets  already.  In  any  position,  trench, 
dug-out,  or  emplacement,  it  was  only  necessary  to  an- 
nounce that  we  would  have  a  little  religious  service  to 
get  a  crowd ;  all  of  the  men  who  could  leave  their  places 
would  gather  at  once.  And  in  those  unusual  spots, 
while  the  guns  of  the  enemy  roared  about  us  and  shrap- 
nel pieces  from  the  shells  of  the  anti-aircraft  batteries 
sprinkled  us  liberally,  these  men,  armed  to  the  teeth, 
wearing  gas  masks  and  steel  helmets,  and  engaged  in  the 
awful  business  of  death,  entered  into  the  spirit  of  re- 
ligious observances  with  a  quiet  zeal  and  fervor  which 
evidenced  that  beneath  the  rough  exterior  their  hearts 
were  fully  alive  to  eternal  verities. 

But  they  are  conscious,  as  all  of  us  are,  of  the  contra- 
diction between  their  present  business  and  the  principles 
of  the  faith  which  they  profess.  If  they  were  theo- 
logians, if  they  cared  one  whit  for  systematic  doctrines, 
they  would  be  confused  and  bewildered,  even  as  the 
Church  is  now  floundering  in  confusion.  It  is  a  good 
thing  for  them  and  for  religion  that  they  are  not  theo- 
logians. They  simply  know  that  their  country  has  called 
them  to  do  battle,  and  they  are  sure  that  God  will  be 
with  them — that  is  all  they  know  or  care.  They  have 
no  idea  that  a  special  providence  will  hedge  them  about 
— which  is  another  good  thing :  they  thus  have  no  embar- 
rassing questions  to  answer,  or  try  to  answer.  One  day 
a  visiting  minister  wanted  to  preach  and  I  took  him  to 
a  gun  emplacement  in  the  support  lines.  With  about 
twenty  men  gathered  around  him  he  was  discoursing 
with  great  unction  of  soul  upon  his  belief  that  this  war 


SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

was  the  cause  of  God.  Suddenly  the  enemy  got  our 
range  and  a  few  105s  fell  alarmingly  near.  We 
tumbled  down  into  the  old  dug-out  with  unseeming  alac- 
rity, and  as  he  disappeared  into  the  ground  one  of  the 
soldiers  remarked,  "This  may  be  the  work  of  the  Lord, 
but  I'll  be  damned  if  I  believe  it." 

On  a  certain  occasion  I  was  asked  to  prepare  an  ar- 
ticle on  "The  Soldier's  Confessional."  I  gave  thought 
to  the  subject,  and  even  started  the  article;  but  I  was 
forced  to  abandon  the  effort  because  I  discovered  that 
the  soldier  had  no  confessional.  His  religious  ideas  are 
not  systematic  enough  to  be  formulated  into  a  confes- 
sional. He  cannot  even  use  the  Apostle's  Creed,  unless 
indeed  he  uses  it  in  the  manner  after  which  it  is  em- 
ployed by  the  average  Christian  in  the  Church  and  re- 
peats it  with  his  lips  without  any  real  understanding  of 
its  contents  or  deep  conviction  of  its  truthfulness.  If 
the  soldier  carefully  analyzed  his  thoughts  about  the 
creed  he  would  no  doubt  be  compelled  to  repeat  it  some- 
what after  this  fashion : 

"  'I  believe  in  God,  the  Father  Almighty ;'  He  may  be 
the  creator  of  heaven  and  earth,  but  I  know  nothing 
about  the  scientific  facts  in  the  case.  'And  in  Jesus 
Christ,  His  only  Son  our  Lord;'  as  for  the  physical 
facts  of  His  life  I  do  not  doubt  them  especially,  but 
there  are  questions,  and  I  do  not  consider  these  things 
material.  'He  was  crucified,  dead,  and  buried;  the 
third  day  He  rose  again  from  the  dead,  He  ascended 
into  heaven,  and  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  God  the 
Father  Almighty ;'  I  doubt  if  He  shall  come  again,  and 


THE  RELIGIOUS  SITUATION  135 

I  am  quite  sure  that  He  is  not  acting  in  the  role  of  judge 
of  the  quick  and  the  dead.  I  believe  in  a  spiritual  pres- 
ence in  the  world  and  have  no  objection  to  calling  it  the 
Holy  Ghost.  I  think  the  holy  catholic  Church  is  a  good 
thing.  If  'communion  of  the  saints'  means  the  fel- 
lowship and  fraternity  of  Christian  people,  then  I  am 
for  it.  And  I  am  strong  for  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  the 
immortality  of  the  soul — I  do  not  believe  in  the  resur- 
rection of  the  physical  body — and  the  life  everlasting." 

The  soldier's  faith  is  strong  but  simple.  He  believes 
in  God  and  Christ,  without  definition;  in  man's  need 
of  God  and  forgiveness;  in  the  eternal  goodness  of 
Deity ;  in  the  supremacy  of  spiritual  and  moral  values ; 
in  the  resurrection  and  eternal  life.  And  that  is  about 
all.  Some  of  us  believe  it  is  quite  enough. 

So  when  the  soldier  returns  he  will  be  open  to  the 
religious  appeal,  but  it  must  be  sincere  and  unmixed 
with  propaganda  for  the  perpetuation  of  institutions. 
Ecclesiastical  rivalries,  jealousies,  and  divisions  will  be 
despised  by  this  man  who  has  learned  so  much  about 
fraternity  and  the  necessity  for  solidarity  and  union. 
When  a  preacher  tells  him  again  that  "simple  faith  in 
Christ  is  all  that  is  required  for  salvation,"  he  will  be 
quick  to  ask  in  return,  "Then  why  do  you  have  so  many 
denominations,  representing  so  much  pure  waste,  all 
founded  on  things  which  every  preacher  on  earth  con- 
fesses to  be  side  issues  and  non-essentials."  And  we  will 
be  interested  in  knowing  what  reply  the  dogmatist  will 
make. 


CHAPTEE  VI 

THE  CLERGY  AND  THE  PEOPLE 

It  is  hardly  possible  to  live  anywhere  in  Europe,  or 
in  America  either,  for  that  matter,  and  pay  even  a 
casual  attention  to  religious  ideas  without  discovering 
that  there  is  a  tremendous  ferment  going  on  in  the  do- 
main of  spiritual  faith.  There  is  a  realization  in  nearly 
all  quarters  that  the  times  are  calling  for  a  life  of  the 
spirit,  and  the  demand  for  an  adequate  interpretation 
of  God  is  insistent.  But  with  this  there  is  coupled  a 
frank  recognition  of  the  fact  that  no  human  institutions 
or  conceptions  are  meeting  the  needs  thus  felt.  And 
accordingly  there  is  a  protest  against  the  Church  and 
the  clergy  because  of  their  failure  to  supply  to  the 
world  the  elements  which  its  heart  craves  in  these  times ; 
they  were  naturally  expected  to  conserve  and  sustain  the 
spirits  of  men  in  the  war  the  same  as  other  agencies 
were  supposed  to  supply  guns,  clothes,  recreation, 
amusement,  cigarettes,  and  the  like.  Now  the  other 
agencies  fulfilled  their  functions  admirably,  but  the 
Church  did  not.  She  let  people  grope  in  the  dark  and 
failed  to  interpret  God  and  the  facts  of  religion  in  ade- 
quate terms  for  purposes  of  these  severe  days.  The 
Church  tried  to  perpetuate  her  platitudinous  utterances 

136 


THE  CLERGY  AND  THE  PEOPLE       137 

and  doctrines,  and  since  the  world  had  lost  interest  in 
these  things  in  peaceful  times  it  could  hardly  be  ex- 
pected to  flock  back  to  them  when  war  spread  its  blight 
and  brought  the  demand  for  a  closer  touch  with  reality. 
Hence  the  protest,  which  ranges  all  the  way  from  mild 
indifference  to  bitter  antagonism. 

This  about  sums  up  the  religious  situation  as  I  found 
it  in  England,  France,  and  Italy  after  much  investiga- 
tion. After  reaching  Europe  my  first  concern  was  to 
discover  what  the  Church  was  doing;  my  natural  in- 
stincts thus  prompted  and  my  knowledge  that  the  spirit 
of  the  people  depended  largely  upon  the  Church  made 
me  doubly  anxious  to  secure  adequate  information.  If 
I  was  making  social  investigation  and  was  interested  in 
the  life  of  the  people,  of  course  the  Church  must  not  be 
neglected ;  and  the  conversation  that  one  could  hear  any- 
where in  regard  to  religion  and  its  institutionalized  life 
convinced  me  that  there  was  a  marked  situation  to  deal 
with.  It  was  therefore  with  much  zest  and  expectancy 
that  I  set  about  the  task  of  securing  an  understanding  of 
these  matters.  The  method  of  approach  was  through  the 
people,  and  from  that  standpoint  all  conclusions  were 
made.  I  have  since  had  these  conclusions  severely  criti- 
cized, particularly  by  the  clergy,  and  the  strictures  were 
always  based  on  the  fact  that  my  statements  were  not  in 
total  agreement  with  the  views  of  certain  ministers ;  the 
critics  did  not  understand,  or  else  they  did  not  approve, 
the  fact  that  my  observations  were  made  through  the 
people  and  embodied  the  views  of  the  people — of  all 
ranks  and  classes,  the  rich  and  poor,  the  soldiers  and 


138        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

government  officials,  rationalists  and  clergymen,  Catho- 
lics and  Protestants.  One  trouble  with  the  clergymen 
to-day  is  that  they  approach  all  matters  from  their  own 
standpoint  and  regard  all  social  movements  through 
their  own  spectacles.  I  tried  to  adopt  a  different  meth- 
od, and  my  statements  have  embodied  the  attitude  of  the 
people  whether  they  meet  with  the  approval  of  the 
clergy  or  not. 

What  are  the  religious  ideas  in  the  hearts  of  the  peo- 
ple in  these  times  ?  This  was  one  phase  of  the  situa- 
tion, which  I  started  to  investigate.  After  the  formation 
of  some  acquaintances,  especially  in  the  case  of  some 
religious  workers  in  the  slum  districts  and  some  persons 
who  had  access  to  Christian  homes  of  a  more  elevated 
social  station,  it  was  an  easy  matter  to  form  judgments. 
For  several  days  I  did  little  save  visit  homes,  going  the 
pastoral  rounds  with  the  social  workers,  attending  little 
home  receptions  with  the  soldiers,  and  in  all  possible 
ways  endeavoring  to  obtain  access  to  the  people.  Prac- 
tically all  of  the  homes  had  suffered  from  the  war — 
sons,  husbands,  fathers,  brothers  were  dead,  mutilated, 
or  "out  there" — and  the  utterances  that  fell  from  the 
lips  of  these  people  at  home  were  representative  of  the 
deepest  sentiments  of  the  heart. 

Without  detailing  the  record  of  visits  and  conversa- 
tions with  these  persons,  I  may  say  that  the  war  has 
had  upon  religious  people  two  opposite  effects.  In  the 
case  of  one  section,  the  old  and  more  intensely  religious 
element  of  the  population,  it  has  served  to  drive  them 
deeper  into  their  faith  and  make  them  cling  to  their 


THE  CLERGY  AND  THE  PEOPLE       139 

conceptions  and  practices  with  a  more  passionate  devo- 
tion. Suffering  of  the  most  intense  character,  the  loss  of 
all  that  they  had  deemed  dear  in  life,  and  a  dreadful 
uncertainty  concerning  the  outcome  of  it  all — these 
things  have  driven  the  people  to  have  recourse  to  the 
only  source  of  hope  and  comfort  which  they  have  ever 
known,  their  religion.  And  so  all  over  Europe  one  may 
find  people  to  whom  religion  means  more  and  gives  more 
at  this  time  than  ever  before.  I  visited  in  the  home  of 
a  lady  prominent  in  the  affairs  of  a  certain  Church; 
she  and  her  daughters  were  in  deep  mourning,  and  the 
features  of  their  white  faces  told  stories  of  mental  an- 
guish unspeakable.  The  two  sons  and  brothers,  three 
nephews  and  cousins,  a  multitude  of  friends  and  loved 
ones  were  all  sleeping  beneath  the  little  white  crosses 
"out  there."  To  these  people  the  war  had  no  more 
horrors;  it  had  done  its  worst  to  them.  They  were  re- 
markably quiet  and  smiled  with  a  wonderful  sweet- 
ness — it  made  me  better  to  see  them  smile !  Their  con- 
versation was  filled  with  assurances  of  comfort  and 
faith  and  their  hearts  were  as  calm  as  a  summer's  after- 
noon. They  were  sad,  but  no  hatred  rankled  in  their 
souls;  they  never  once  spoke  of  "the  'un."  "Perhaps 
the  war  is  a  good  thing  after  all,"  the  lovely  lady  said 
to  me;  "at  any  rate  it  has  brought  me  a  faith  that  I 
never  knew  before.  I  have  something  to  pray  for  now ; 
I  know  what  Christ  suffered,  I  know  how  valuable  the 
doctrine  of  immortality  is,  and  my  faith  in  a  heaven 
is  strengthened  into  a  certainty  and  conviction  that 
nothing  can  shake.  When  the  war  came  I  was  driven 


140        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

to  my  knees  and  to  the  Church.  When  the  blows  began 
to  fall  upon  my  heart  I  was  driven  more  and  more  deep- 
ly into  communion  with  God.  And  now  I  understand 
how  little  avails  the  things  that  we  can  handle  and  lay 
up.  Nothing  counts  but  love,  and  love  cannot  be  sus- 
tained apart  from  God."  And  then  she  smiled  her 
wonderful  smile  and  was  content. 

There  are  not  many  like  this  lady,  but  I  found  sev- 
eral who  had  known  her  experience.  Down  in  the  slums 
of  the  east  end  of  London  and  in  other  walks  they  are 
living  on  the  Bread  of  Life.  Each  day  they  go  to  their 
Churches  and  return  with  a  new  comfort.  The  fleeting 
glance  that  I  received  of  this  side  of  religious  life  made 
me  understand  that  here  were  the  germs  of  a  tremendous 
awakening.  But  alas!  the  other  side  was  so  apparent 
that  it  was  evident  the  trend  of  things  was  in  the  other 
direction. 

The  war  has  had  an  opposite  effect  upon  the  lives  of 
another  section  of  the  people.  It  has  brought  to  them 
nothing  save  distress,  confusion,  doubt.  These  are  the 
more  intellectual  folk — it  is  not  that  the  other  section  do 
not  possess  intellectual  strength,  but  they  do  not  ap- 
proach the  facts  of  life  through  that  channel.  This 
second  section  is  more  inclined  to  weigh  facto,  evidence, 
and  influences.  And  to  them  the  war  has  meant  mis- 
understandings that  have  beclouded  their  faith  and  filled 
their  hearts  with  uncertainty.  In  the  first  place,  they 
have  heard  the  charge  that  Christianity  has  broken  down 
and  proved  a  failure.  Over  and  over  the  rationalist 
press  presents  the  well-worn  arguments.  Christianity 


THE  CLERGY  AND  THE  PEOPLE 

failed  to  prevent  war !  The  world  has  repudiated  the 
doctrines  of  Christ !  Now  what  about  your  doctrine  of 
the  other  cheek!  And  people  have  been  deluded  and 
deceived  by  these  specious  utterances  until  some  of  the 
best  of  them  are  half -inclined  to  throw  over  religion  alto- 
gether. With  socialists,  labor  union  enthusiasts,  skep- 
tics, "New  Thought  advocates,  and  the  whole  coterie  of 
agitators  inveighing  against  religion  from  morning  until 
night,  and  with  the  Christian  apologists  either  ignor- 
ing the  attacks  or  replying  in  bulky  and  expensive  tomes 
couched  in  the  phrases  of  the  university  lecture  room, 
and  which  the  people  never  see  and  would  not  read  if 
they  did  see,  it  is  small  wonder  that  those  average  men 
who  think  seriously  but  superficially  have  been  all  but 
swept  from  their  moorings. 

Then  adding  to  this  confusion  are  a  group  of  ex- 
tremely orthodox  ecclesiastics  with  a  set  of  outgrown  no- 
tions concerning  verbal  inspiration  and  literal  interpre- 
tation of  the  Bible,  which  issue  in  a  doctrine  called  pre- 
millenarianism.  As  Principal  Forsyth  remarked,  not 
one  of  these  men  ever  did  the  New  Testament  the  honor 
of  becoming  a  recognized  authority  in  it,  but  they  are 
vociferous  enough  to  make  up  for  their  lack  of  influ- 
ence and  intelligence.  Their  teachings  are  that  the 
Bible  is  verbally  inspired  by  God  and  is  infallible,  that 
it  must  be  interpreted  literally,  that  prophecy  was  the 
prediction  by  inspired  men  of  events  that  would  happen 
in  the  distant  future,  and  that  Christ  will  soon  come 
to  establish  Himself  in  person  in  this  world,  rule  on  a 
temporal  throne,  put  his  enemies  to  death,  catch  up  the 


SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

faithful  and  make  them  float  in  the  air,  etc.,  etc. 
They  believe  that  Christ  will  not  come  until  the  world 
goes  so  completely  to  hell  that  it  cannot  longer  get  along 
without  Him,  and  in  the  war  they  see  signs  of  the  com- 
ing. They  do  not  know,  or  else  they  do  not  regard  the 
fact,  that  there  has  never  been  an  age  in  which  these 
notions  did  not  flourish,  there  was  never  a  calamity 
which  did  not  breed  a  perfect  swarm  of  their  adherents. 
I  visited  a  preacher  who  is  more  or  less  noted  for 
expounding  such  views.  He  told  me  that  the  world  had 
forsaken  "the  word"  and  thus  the  war  came  about; 
"the  word,"  as  understood  by  him,  meant  verbal  inspira- 
tion and  literal  interpretation.  With  his  permission  I 
propounded  a  series  of  questions  to  which  I  requested 
answers  from  his  standpoint,  some  of  them  being  the 
following:  On  the  basis  of  verbal  inspiration  how  do 
you  deal  with  differing  and  contradictory  accounts  of 
the  same  happening,  like  the  conversion  of  Paul,  for  ex- 
ample, without  impeaching  God  by  throwing  onto  Him, 
as  inspirer,  the  responsibility  of  contradicting  Him- 
self ?  If  the  Bible  is  accepted  literally  in  all  sections 
what  shall  we  do  with  the  statement  in  Ecclesiastes  that 
"a  man  hath  no  preeminence  above  a  beast,"  and  the 
implication  in  the  question  "Are  ye  not  much  more  than 
they  ?"  If  the  world  must  go  to  hell  does  not  that  imply 
the  failure  of  Christ's  attempt  to  redeem  the  world 
through  the  operation  of  His  Spirit?  If  this  hellward 
process  is  a  part  of  God's  plan  for  the  final  establishment 
of  His  kingdom,  prepared  and  outlined  centuries  ago, 
is  not  God  impeached  as  the  author  of  a  program  of 


THE  CLERGY  AND  THE  PEOPLE       143 

immorality?  If  you  are  anxious  to  secure  the  return 
of  Christ,  and  if  He  will  not  return  until  the  hellward 
process  is  complete,  would  it  not  be  logical  for  you  and 
your  crowd  to  assist  the  hellward  trend  by  becoming  out- 
breaking criminals  in  society?  If  you  insist  on  being 
pure  and  saving  yourself,  are  you  not  selfish  in  that  you 
postpone  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  in  order  to  secure 
your  own  salvation  ?  As  was  to  be  expected,  this  preach- 
er refused  to  discuss  such  matters  and  accused  me  of 
being  an  infidel  in  the  employ  of  the  Rationalist  Press 
Association !  By  forcibly  injecting  these  views  into  the 
religious  situation  to-day  these  pre-millenarians  have 
contributed  much  to  spread  dissension,  confusion,  and 
doubt  among  the  people.  They  play  into  the  hands  of 
the  rationalist,  because,  as  the  people  have  learned, 
literalism  and  verbal  inspiration  cannot  be  defended  in 
the  face  of  the  plain  fact  of  the  Bible  itself;  and  the 
people  who  are  constantly  being  taught  these  indefen- 
sible theories  are  becoming  more  and  more  confused. 

One  day  a  group  of  correspondents  were  en  route  to 
the  British  Headquarters  under  the  escort  of  some  offi- 
cers detailed  for  the  service  by  the  war  department.  The 
topics  of  conversation  were  naturally  varied,  but  I  was 
surprised  to  note  that  the  subject  of  religion  was 
broached  over  and  over  again,  and  each  time  the  officers 
were  willing  and  prepared  to  discuss  it.  The  remarks 
relative  to  spirituality  and  religion  were  always  most 
respectful  and  reverent,  but  they  were  exceedingly 
flippant  and  disrespectful  in  regard  to  the  Church  and 
the  clergy.  "The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  is  a  Vic- 


144        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

torian  relic,"  was  a  remark  that  caused  laughter  and 
agreement.  One  intelligent  young  captain  seemed  to  be 
the  spokesman  for  the  entire  company,  and  I  ventured 
to  put  to  him  certain  questions  and  suggestions  in  the 
hope  that  his  answers  and  the  attitude  of  the  others  to 
them  might  furnish  me  some  information  of  value. 

"What  has  the  Church  done  in  the  present  war  in  the 
way  of  service  to  the  people  and  the  nation?"  I  asked 
him. 

"Nothing  whatever/7  he  replied.  "She  has  only  made 
trouble.  The, Church  was  expected  to  render  no  service 
save  a  spiritual  service ;  this  she  has  not  even  attempted, 
and  in  deserting  this  legitimate  field  and  trying  to  work 
in  others  she  has  made  a  jolly  mess  of  it." 

"What  has  she  done  in  particular,  in  creating  this 
mess  ?" 

"Much  in  every  way.  There  is  not  an  officer  in  the 
army  who  does  not  know  that  the  Church  has  interfered 
with  discipline  and  contributed  to  inefficiency  by  object- 
ing to  cricket  and  other  games  on  Sunday.  We  use  these 
games  in  training  the  men :  for  example  a  good  bowler 
is  an  excellent  bomber  because  the  method  of  throwing 
is  the  same,  and  in  the  same  way  fencing  develops  effi- 
ciency in  bayonet  fighting.  It  was  our  custom  to  encour- 
age these  games  on  Sunday  afternoons,  thereby  assisting 
our  men,  entertaining  them,  and  keeping  in  touch  with 
them.  Then  came  the  clergy  to  object,  and  wherever 
they  have  sustained  their  protests  demoralization  has  re- 
sulted. Our  men  are  bored  and  we  lose  track  of  them 


THE  CLERGY  AND  THE  PEOPLE       145 

on  Sunday.  It  is  a  damned  outrage,  perpetrated  by- 
damned  fools !" 

This  conclusion  I  found  to  be  concurred  in  by  prac- 
tically all  the  officers,  the  noted  General,  an  old  Sudan 
veteran  who  had  charge  of  all  the  training  activities,  be- 
ing especially  indignant  at  the  suggestion  that  his  games 
might  be  prevented.  And  when  we  were  being  shown 
the  cricket  field  the  question,  "Have  the  bishops  inter- 
fered with  you  yet  ?"  brought  a  sullen  scowl  to  the  offi- 
cer's face. 

"Have  they  done  anything  else  ?"  I  asked. 

"Much,"  my  officer  replied.  "They  have  made  such 
a  howl  against  reprisals  that  we  must  sit  quietly  and  be 
bombed  day  after  day  by  the  Hun  without  being  able  to 
lift  a  finger  in  retaliation.  The  clergy  alone  are  re- 
sponsible for  the  situation,  as  everybody  knows.  They 
plead  the  efficacy  of  moral  suasion  and  example  in  deal- 
ing with  an  enemy  whose  conceptions  of  such  things  are 
long  since  dead.  The  army  demands  reprisals,  and  the 
same  demand  is  echoed  by  the  king  and  tke  people.  But 
the  clergy  prevent  the  policy.  Bah !  To  hell  with  such 
a  government !" 

"Do  not  the  clergy  render  good  service  as  chaplains  ?" 

"Some  do,  most  do  not.  Too  many  times  they  hinder 
by  their  jealousy  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  of  other  chap- 
lains sent  out  by  different  communions.  We  could  dis- 
pense with  most  of  them  and  be  better  off." 

"What  do  you  think  is  wrong  with  them  ?" 

"I  think  the  trouble  is  plain  ignorance.  They  know 
nothing  about  the  people.  They  have  been  trained  in 


146        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

another  direction  and  have  lived  apart  from  them,  so 
that  to-day  they  have  no  message  for  the  nation.  I  went 
home  from  the  trenches  on  Easter  and  went  to  hear  my 
own  parson.  He  preached  from  the  text,  'I  go  a-fishing/ 
and  I  sat  there  hungry  for  some  message  of  hope  and 
some  sign  of  God ;  but  the  padre  had  no  idea  of  what  I 
needed  or  what  the  people  needed.  They  should  compel 
all  young  clergymen  to  spend  a  few  years  in  the  east 
end  as  a  part  of  their  education." 

"What  do  the  soldiers  think  of  the  clergymen  at  the 
front?" 

"They  have  different  ideas  for  different  parsons.  But 
as  a  rule  they  do  not  take  the  chaplains  seriously.  He 
is  either  what  you  call  'a  good  fellow'  and  drinks  with 
the  men,  else  he  lives  apart  from  them;  in  either  case 
his  spiritual  influence  is  small.  The  men  understand 
that  a  drinking  parson,  and  one  who  excuses  their  im- 
morality, as  most  of  them  do  after  some  fashion,  does 
not  represent  Christ." 

"You  seem  to  see  little  good  in  the  clergymen,"  I  at 
last  said  to  him. 

"Little  good  at  the  present  time,"  he  agreed.  "The 
Church  has  caused  trouble  in  every  land.  In  Ireland, 
England,  Mexico,  Russia,  Italy,  Canada,  and  Australia 
the  Church  has  been  the  source  of  mischief  and  dissen- 
sion. The  only  exception  is  in  France,  where  the  gov- 
ernment paid  not  the  least  attention  to  the  clergy  but 
conscripted  them  as  common  soldiers  along  with  the  run 
of  men.  The  result  has  been  that  the  French  priests 
are  more  beloved  than  ever  before." 


THE  CLERGY  AND  THE  PEOPLE       147 

"But  you  must  remember  that  in  all  of  these  coun- 
tries you  mention  the  trouble  has  been  caused  by  a 
Church  which  either  has  or  claims  temporal  and  politi- 
cal rights." 

"Ah!  You  have  sensed  the  trouble/'  ne  exclaimed. 
"It  is  a  political  Church  that  bothers  us.  Even  here  in 
England  the  non-conformists  have  kept  their  souls. 
Their  young  men  have  'joined  up'  willingly,  their  mes- 
sage has  been  true,  and  they  should  be  excepted  from 
any  of  the  strictures  which  I  have  pronounced  against 
these  Anglicans.  After  this  war  we  will  have  a  settle- 
ment, and  one  of  the  first  acts  of  reconstruction  must  be 
the  disestablishment  of  the  Church." 

The  doctrines  set  forth  by  this  young  captain  I  later 
found  to  be  the  prevailing  sentiments  everywhere — 
among  the  soldiers,  officials,  and  men  on  the  street.  And 
they  are  held  and  freely  promulgated  by  men  who  are 
themselves  deeply  religious  and  communicants  of  the 
established  Church;  in  practically  all  instances  these 
persons  took  care  to  conclude  their  prophecies  on  what 
would  happen  to  the  Church  after  the  war  with  the  state- 
ment, "But  we  must  see  to  it  that  religion  does  not  suf- 
ier." 

The  situation  created  in  me  a  new  desire  to  see  for 
myself  these  clergymen  who  were  thus  abused.  Armed 
with  letters  of  commendation  and  introduction  from 
some  of  the  leading  clergymen  of  America,  the  posses- 
sion of  which,  reenf  orcing  my  own  position,  seemed  cal- 
culated to  secure  for  me  the  attention  of  any  minister 
anywhere,  I  began  the  rounds.  My  first  visit  was  to  a 


148        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

Methodist  known  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  a  dis- 
tinguished editor,  author,  and  preacher.  He  received 
me  with  a  pale  smile  and  showed  a  mild  interest  when 
he  read  my  credentials  and  heard  my  mission.  But  I 
could  get  nothing  from  him  of  interest,  and  my  hopes 
that  he  would  assist  me  faded.  He  showed  no  inclina- 
tion to  extend  facilities  that  would  expedite  my  work, 
and  as  for  the  fact  that  the  Church  had  any  especial 
mission  in  the  present  crisis,  or  was  the  object  of  any 
special  opposition  on  the  part  of  persons  who  mattered, 
he  seemed  never  to  have  heard  of  it.  Across  the  street 
I  would  find  the  old  Bunhill  Fields  burying  grounds 
and  the  graves  of  Susannah  Wesley,  John  Bunyan, 
DeFoe,  and  other  celebrities,  while  the  City  Eoad 
Chapel,  Wesley's  House,  and  Museum  were  close  at 
hand;  I  would  be  interested  in  these  things!  And  in- 
deed I  did  get  more  inspiration  from  these  remains  of 
the  dead  than  I  received  from  the  living  in  that  vicinity. 
I  tried  it  again.  Mine  host  this  time  was  another 
noted  divine,  author  of  books  on  sale  but  seldom  read 
in  this  country,  whose  mighty  Church  lifts  its  dome 
across  from  Westminster  Abbey.  I  searched  for  thirty 
minutes  before  I  could  discover  where  this  pastor  kept 
himself,  and  at  last  I  found  myself  in  his  presence. 
He  said  he  was  glad  to  see  me,  but  he  did  not  act  like  it. 
He  put  himself  out  but  little  in  receiving  me;  in  fact  he 
entirely  dispensed  with  the  formality  of  asking  me  to 
have  a  chair  and  talk  with  him.  One  swift  glance  over 
his  spectacles  was  the  only  look  I  received  from  him, 
and  as  he  bustled  around  he  observed,  "If  you  are  pres- 


THE  CLERGY  AND  THE  PEOPLE       149 

ent  at  any  of  our  services  I  shall  be  pleased  to  have  a 
word  with  you." 

I  thought  I  would  perhaps  succeed  better  elsewhere, 
and  I  motored  across  Westminster  Bridge  to  a  clergy- 
man known  around  the  world.  Here  I  was  received 
kindly  but  coldly.  I  could  not  draw  this  pastor  out  on 
any  subject,  and  my  suggestion  that  the  war  presented 
a  challenge  to  the  religious  world  simply  evoked  the  re- 
ply: "Certainly,  sir,  certainly.  We  must  hold  the 
faith.  I  see  in  it  all  the  fulfillment  of  prophecy.  We 
must  be  nearing  the  end ;  yes,  we  must  be,  indeed !"  By 
this  time  I  had  begun  to  think  that  discourtesy  was  a 
part  of  the  general  equipment  of  British  clergymen.  It 
was  not  until  later  that  I  realized  the  possible  cause  of 
the  attitude  I  encountered;  a  Scotchman  told  me — I 
was  wearing  a  straw  hat  and  a  brown  suit  with  a  belt 
around  the  waist !  Offense  enough ! 

I  met  the  one  representative  of  an  efficient  ministry 
in  a  live  young  minister  down  Whitechapel  way;  he 
was  in  charge  of  a  system  of  missions  in  the  east  end  of 
London  and  was  living,  moving,  and  having  his  being 
with  the  people.  He  knew  them  and  their  problems, 
and  his*  establishment  radiated  helpfulness.  He  smoked 
but  did  not  drink,  and  lived  the  life  of  a  man  among 
men.  I  found  him  open  to  the  appeal  of  the  national 
crisis  and  crying  out  his  heart  for  a  method  to  assist, 
and  daily  he  was  giving  his  strong  right  arm  to  the 
service  of  the  distressed.  It  was  no  wonder  that  his 
auditorium,  down  in  the  slums,  was  an  immense  one 


150        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

and  that  the  Queen  and  the  Princess  Mary  were  wont 
to  pay  him  a  visit  once  in  a  while. 

I  came  from  the  atmosphere  of  America,  and  was 
almost  amazed  at  the  lethargy  which  possessed  the  clergy 
of  England.  I  found  it  a  literal  truth  that  those  whom 
I  visited  knew  little  about  life  and  little  about  the  de- 
mands made  upon  them  by  the  present  age.  There  were 
brilliant  exceptions,  of  course,  but  as  a  general  rule  it 
seemed  to  me  true  that  "their  training  had  stereotyped 
their  minds."  I  attended  their  services  and  heard  them 
preach — good,  wholesome  sermons  for  the  most  part  and 
from  a  theoretical  standpoint.  But  I  met  no  clergymen 
who  could  tell  me  what  should  be  done  about  the  de- 
plorable state  of  European  social  morality,  and  none 
offered  a  program  of  social  endeavor.  Surely  if  ever  a 
Church  deserved  disestablishment  it  is  the  Church  of 
England,  and  one  hopes  that  the  prediction  of  the  young 
captain  may  come  true. 

I  should  be  dealing  unjustly,  however,  if  I  left  the 
impression  that  there  are  no  clergymen  who  are  grasp- 
ing the  significance  of  these  days.  I  have  seen  scores 
of  them.  They  labor  in  the  trenches  and  on  the  firing 
lines,  in  the  hospitals  and  prison  camps,  everywhere  men 
are  found.  No  sacrifice  is  too  great  for  them  to  make. 
These  are  they  who  have  a  firm  grasp  on  the  spiritual 
realities  of  the  universe  and  are  able  to  interpret  them 
in  terms  of  life.  They  do  not,  like  so  many  of  their 
fellows,  cover  the  sins  of  the  Tommies  with  admiring 
phrases  and  balance  their  courage  and  unselfishness  over 
against  their  immorality  and  drunkenness  so  as  to  give 


THE  CLERGY  AND  THE  PEOPLE       151 

them  a  clean  slate.  Neither  do  they  dabhle  in  pre- 
millenarian  foolishness  or  any  other  form  of  physical 
interpretation*  And  they  are  not  confused  in  their 
thinking  concerning  God.  To  such  as  these  Mr.  Wells 
makes  no  appeal,  because  they  know  what  Mr.  Wells 
does  not;  while  he  was  reveling  in  socialistic  fantas- 
tics  they  were  sitting  at  the  feet  of  the  Master  of  all 
the  ages;  their  wisdom  is  the  fruit  of  long  experience 
while  his  is  the  result  of  presumptuous  conceit,  touched 
with  a  sense  of  former  failure.  Unto  such  men  as  these 
all  honor  should  be  accorded — and  it  will  be. 

And  the  soldiers  are  religious  too,  in  a  sense,  al- 
though they  do  not  seem  to  be  Christians.  They  know 
"the  White  Comrade"  but  they  do  not  connect  Him  with 
the  Church — rather  do  they  connect  the  Church  with 
the  Pharisees  whom  He  denounced  so  severely.  It  is  a 
natural  religion  that  they  have — the  kind  that  the  Stu- 
dent in  Arms  described  in  those  wonderful  words  which 
have  been  so  often  quoted  that  they  do  not  need  quota- 
tion any  more.  Perhaps  when  this  war  is  over  the  clergy 
will  have  learned  a  lesson.  Perhaps  the  Church  will 
reform  enough  to  learn  where  the  people  are  and 
what  the  Bible  is.  And  then  this  natural  religion 
which  the  soldiers  have  can  be  made  to  issue  into  the 
Christianity  of  a  repentant  Church,  and  the  "White 
Comrade"  will  cover  the  earth  with  His  spiritual  influ- 
ence. It  is  a  consummation  devoutly  to  be  wished. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  CHUECH  AND  THE  WAR 

There  are  perhaps  few  well-informed  people  to-day 
who  do  not  realize  that  the  outlook  for  the  Church,  aside 
from  our  faith  in  its  ultimate  triumph  and  on  the  basis 
of  the  facts  as  they  now  present  themselves,  is  far  from 
bright.  There  is  a  protest  against  it  in  all  parts  of  the 
world,  ranging  in  its  degree  of  severity  from  mild  in- 
difference to  violent  hatred,  and  this  opposition  from 
the  outside  is  reenforced  by  unrest  on  the  inside.  And 
so  marked  is  the  tendency  against  the  Church  that  we 
might  abandon  all  hope  and  join  the  ranks  of  those  who 
so  confidently  predict  its  early  and  complete  destruc- 
tion did  we  not  understand  the  social  and  personal  need 
of  religious  organizations,  and  did  we  not  have  a  spiri- 
tual faith  in  the  premises. 

In  France  the  antagonism  to  the  Church  is  perhaps 
not  so  marked  as  elsewhere,  for  there  prevails  at  the 
present  time  a  more  cordial  feeling  towards  it  than  has 
been  the  case  in  recent  years.  The  trammels  of  Roman 
Catholicism  were  recently  broken,  and  as  a  result  of 
this  action  there  grew  up  an  estrangement  between 
Trance  and  the  Vatican  that  amounted  almost  to  open 
hostility.  This  feeling  still  exists  in  a  great  degree,  the 

152 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  WAR    153 

Pope  still  maintaining  a  sullen  attitude  toward  France 
and  France  having  a  deep  suspicion  of  the  Pope.  Un- 
like some  of  her  allies,  she  has  not  sent  a  diplomatic 
representative  to  the  papal  court,  and  she  was  the  last 
nation  to  officially  thank  his  holiness  for  his  efforts  in 
securing  the  transfer  and  exchange  of  prisoners  of  war. 
But  while  the  relations  are  by  no  means  cordial,  there 
are  signs  that  France  regards  the  Church  in  a  light 
somewhat  more  favorable  than  formerly.  This  is  due 
almost  wholly  to  the  fact  that  the  priests  are  fighting 
in  the  trenches  as  private  soldiers.  By  conscripting  the 
ecclesiastics  along  with  all  others  France  avoided  the 
trouble  which  England  has  incurred  and  kept  down 
some  of  the  causes  of  the  anti-ecclesiasticism  which  pre- 
vails across  the  channel.  At  the  same  time  certain  of  the 
priests  have  demeaned  themselves  nobly  in  the  war  and 
have  gained  the  respect  of  the  people.  Thus  France  has 
forgotten  that  the  priests  are  conscripts,  that  they  doubt- 
less would  not  have  "joined  up"  otherwise,  and  that  they 
have  caused  dissension  and  trouble  in  all  of  the  allied 
countries  where  they  were  exempted.  The  worst  thing 
that  could  have  happened  to  the  Church  was  clerical 
exemption  from  military  service;  this  lies  at  the  base 
of  much  opposition  and  misunderstanding  and  has 
served  to  draw  the  Church  farther  away  from  the  peo- 
ple. But  although  the  attitude  of  the  French  toward 
the  Church  has  somewhat  improved,  there  are  no  signs 
that  cordial  relations  are  about  to  be  entered  into,  nor 
are  the  people  flocking  to  the  churches  as  a  result  of  the 
war.  The  indifference  and  opposition  which  prevails 


154        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

elsewhere  in  the  world  is  prominent  in  France  also. 

In  Italy  the  anti-ecclesiastical  spirit  is  marked.  Here 
the  Church  has  suffered  much  from  the  war.  Home  is 
convinced,  along  with  the  rest  of  Europe,  that  the  Pope 
is  at  heart  pro-German,  and  the  action  of  the  Vatican 
in  retaining  enemy  aliens  in  official  positions,  and  the 
Gerlac  case  in  particular,  has  embittered  the  people. 
The  Pope  protested  because  the  diplomatic  representa- 
tives of  Germany  and  Austria  left  Eome  at  the  outbreak 
of  the  war,  and  he  has  been  unwilling  to  submit  to  the 
delays  and  inconveniences  in  the  transmission  of  mail 
and  telegraphic  communications  which  the  state  of  bel- 
ligerency made  incumbent  upon  all  people.  Then  his 
peace  proposals  have  all  had  a  pro-German  ring.  It 
would  be  difficult  to  convince  the  Italian  masses  that 
Benedict  is  not  at  heart  in  sympathy  with  the  cause  of 
the  Central  allies.  The  Vatican  itself,  however,  does 
not  understand  that  it  has  estranged  the  people  more 
and  more  during  the  war.  Because  of  the  fact  that  Eng- 
land and  Russia  have  sent  representatives  to  its  court 
since  the  war  began  it  believes  the  hand  of  the  Pope  has 
been  strengthened,  and  that  these  nations  are  coming  to 
a  recognition  of  his  temporal  claims.  Nothing  could 
be  farther  from  the  truth.  These  agents  are  little  more 
than  secret,  service  operatives,  and  their  appointment 
was  made  with  no  other  motive  than  to  have  men  on  the 
ground  to  watch  the  operations  inside  the  Vatican  pal- 
ace. They  represent  suspicion  rather  than  cordiality. 

This  attitude  which  is  the  outgrowth  of  the  war  comes 
on  top  of  an  anti-papal  sentiment  which  has  been  grow- 


THE  CHURCH  AND  T,HE  WAR         155 

ing  in  Italy  since  the  adoption  of  the  absurd  "prisoner 
of  the  Vatican"  theory,  and  even  before  that  time.  This 
fiction,  and  the  temporal  phases  of  the  Italian  question 
upon  which  it  rests,  are  derided  and  sneered  at  by  the 
people  in  all  the  ranks  of  society,  and  the  longer  these 
political  aspirations  are  cherished  the  deeper  will  be- 
come the  gulf  between  the  Church  and  the  people.  Rome 
is  by  far  the  most  anti-papal  city  of  Europe,  and  the 
lack  of  respect  for  the  Church  is  surprising  to  the  casual 
observer.  The  most  strenuous  opposition  to  the  hier- 
archy of  the  Church  runs  through  Italian  society,  and 
it  comes  from  ministers  of  state,  captains  of  industry, 
leaders  in  thought,  the  men  on  the  street,  socialists,  and 
all  other  social  groups.  The  clerical  party,  defenders 
of  the  Church,  embraces  an  insignificant  portion  of  the 
people  who  are  Catholics;  these  people  are  determined 
to  stand  by  and  support  the  Law  of  Guarantees  no  mat- 
ter what  may  happen  to  the  Church. 

The  same  state  of  affairs  prevails  in  England  also. 
So  far  as  the  Catholic  Church  is  concerned  the  oppo- 
sition has  deepened  into  hatred.  In  Ireland  the  Catho- 
lics have  hobnobbed  with  the  enemy  and  have  attempted 
to  betray  the  Empire  while  it  was  struggling  for  its  life, 
just  as  they  have  done  in  every  war  in  which  Britain 
has  been  engaged.  In  Canada  they  have  opposed  con- 
scription, prevented  enlistment,  and  hampered  the  con- 
duct of  the  war  in  many  ways,  and  they  have  done  the 
same  thing  in  Australia.  England,  therefore,  has  a 
settled  conviction  that  the  Catholics  are  traitors,  and  she 
hates  the  Church  accordingly. 


156        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

And  England  has  come  almost  to  blows  with  the  An- 
glicans also.  Time  and  again  I  have  heard  the  officers 
of  the  British  army  condemn  the  Church  with  deep  bit- 
terness, and  in  nearly  all  cases  these  officers  were  com- 
municants of  the  Church  and  possessed  of  deep  religious 
sentiments.  In  one  group  I  heard  an  officer  express  the 
consensus'of  opinion  by  saying  that  in  Kussia,  England, 
France,  Italy,  Germany,  Canada,  Australia,  Ireland, 
and  Mexico  the  Church  had  given  trouble  in  the  war, 
and  he  expressed  the  sentiment  that  the  entire  idea 
should  be  thrown  overboard,  or  some  new  organization 
be  built  up  on  the  facts  of  religion.  The  governmental 
officials,  the  officers,  the  soldiers,  and  the  people  gener- 
ally feel  that  the  Church  has  not  "played  the  game," 
and  that  the  war  has  broken  down  her  organization  com- 
pletely. 

The  Countess  of  Warwick  states  the  case  against  the 
Church  this  way:  "Granted  that  the  task  before  the 
Church  was  a  very  formidable  one,  that  it  was  even  im- 
possible, something  of  the  equivalent  in  moral  courage 
to  the  physical  courage  shown  upon  the  battle  field 
should  have  been  forthcoming  from  its  spokesmen.  Un- 
fortunately there  is  much  to  suggest  that  the  Estab- 
lished Church  is  conserving  its  courage  for  the  post  bel- 
lum  task  of  preaching  the  old  platitudes  and  asking 
those  who  have  seen  war,  or  merely  suffered  by  it,  to 
take  them  seriously.  And  truly  courage  of  a  kind  ia 
needed  for  this.  .  .  .  The  failure  of  the  Established 
Church  during  the  war  is  the  inevitable  result  of  its 
failure  during  the  long  years  that  preceded  it.  It  has 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  WAR    157 

been  the  collapse  of  an  Institution  that  deliberately 
dwelt  in  a  world  of  its  own  imagining,  and  never  had 
the  strength  of  will  or  purpose  to  tell  home-truths  to 
the  comfortable  and  the  possessing  classes,  upon  whose 
support  it  has  learned  to  rely.  .  .  .  Peace  has  its  mas- 
sacres no  less  complete  than  war,  and  to  the  most  of 
these  massacres,  whether  by  drink,  disease,  poverty,  or 
vice,  the  Established  Church  has  been  a  spectator,  if 
the  term  can  be  applied  to  that  which  has  eyes  but  sees 
not,  ears  but  hears  not,  and  a  mouth  in  which  most  ut- 
terance is  platitudinous.  The  Heads  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church,  with  one  or  two  brilliant  exceptions,  do 
not  know  anything  of  the  actualities  of  the  world  in 
which  they  live ;  they  do  not  dare  to  know ;  their  train- 
ing has  stereotyped  their  minds;  the  present  state  of 
the  world  has  found  them  not  only  unprepared,  but  quite 
helpless  to  cope  with  it.  I  do  not  expect  to  live  to  see 
the  Established  Church  recognize  the  truth  that  the  real 
salvation  of  this  country  depends  upon  the  removal  of 
all  social  conditions  that  create  paupers,  criminals,  and 
lunatics.  I  do  not  expect  to  hear  ministers  advocating 
ceaselessly  in  the  pulpit  the  taking  of  the  necessary 
measures  for  restoring  the  social  balance,  quite  regard- 
less of  the  chance  that  there  may  be  among  the  congre- 
gation some  of  those  whose  life-work  is  responsible  for 
one  or  more  of  the  evils  denounced.  Before  the  war, 
such  home-truths  were  tolerated  only  from  the  preachers 
who  were  extremely  fashionable  and  preached  to  an 
audience  almost  exclusively  feminine,  an  audience  that 
took  no  heed  of  what  they  said,  and  was  concerned  only 


158        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

with  the  manner  of  saying  it.  One  does  not  dare  to 
dwell  upon  the  fashionable  preacher  whose  congrega- 
tion is  largely  feminine!"  ("The  New  Religion,"  Hib- 
bert  Journal.  July,  1917.) 

This  protest  is  voiced  from  the  standpoint  of  the  In- 
ternationalist, whose  opposition  is  based  on  the  alleged 
fact  that  the  Church  has  not  performed  her  social  duty. 
This  attitude  on  the  part  of  socialists  is  by  no  means 
new,  but  it  has  been  accentuated  and  given  a  new  influ- 
ence by  the  war.  This  is  true  because  the  war  has  re- 
vealed the  need  of  some  social  agency  which  can  solve 
the  problems  of  inequality  and  secure  social  justice ;  and 
these  problems  have  been  revealed  as  moral  at  the  bot- 
tom and  hence  in  the  province  of  the  Church.  And  since 
they  have  not  been  solved  it  is  perfectly  natural  that  the 
failure  to  solve  them  should  be  laid  at  the  door  of  the 
Church.  Then  the  laboring  man  has  gained  a  new  in- 
fluence in  the  order  of  things  as  they  exist  at  the  present 
time;  he  has  more  money  and  he  is  recognized  as  being 
a  more  vital  factor  in  the  life  of  our  times.  Therefore 
his  opinions  have  more  weight,  and  thus  much  atten- 
tion is  being  given  to  his  opinion  of  the  Church.  Social- 
ism is  also  become  more  formidable  in  Europe,  owing 
to  the  new  position  of  the  laborer,  the  strength  of  labor 
unions  in  the  present  crisis,  and  the  hopes  which  the 
Allies  placed  upon  the  German  socialists  in  the  matter 
of  destroying  autocracy  from  the  inside  and  bringing 
about  peace. 

The  causes  for  such  an  attitude  towards  the  Church 
are  many  and  varied.  One  of  them  is  the  general  unrest 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  WAR         159 

and  uncertainty  in  all  matters  of  religion.  The  war  has 
shocked  people  out  of  their  old  complacency  in  regard 
to  spiritual  affairs,  and  in  the  search  for  stability  they 
have  become  confused.  A  thousand  voices  call  them  this 
way  and  that.  One  cries  out  that  the  war  proves  the 
final  failure  of  Christianity,  another  says  that  the  end 
of  the  world  is  at  hand,  still  another  upholds  one  of 
the  multitude  of  foolish  isms  that  are  adrift  to-day,  and 
one  makes  a  rationalistic  attack  on  the  subject  matter 
of  faith.  Gradually  people  are  losing  their  religion,  as 
a  systematic  and  well-grounded  conviction.  It  brings 
them  no  comfort  and  hope  in  the  midst  of  the  greatest 
sorrow  they  have  ever  known.  They  hear  of  move- 
ments and  doctrines  which  they  cannot  understand,  and 
their  minds  and  hearts  become  beclouded  with  anxiety 
and  doubt.  There  is  religious  unrest,  change,  and  flux 
all  over  the  world,  and  the  Church  suffers  on  both  sides. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  when  the  religious  atmos- 
phere clears  the  ecclesiastical  air  will  clear  also. 

Then  the  European  clergy  are  clearly  out  of  touch 
with  the  people.  They  do  not  know  where  the  people 
live,  what  they  are  doing,  what  their  problems  are,  or 
how  they  are  getting  on.  When  the  Countess  of  War- 
wick declares  that  they  are  living  in  a  world  of  their 
own  imagining,  she  is  right.  Their  education  really 
does  separate  them  from  life,  and  under  the  European 
form  of  ecclesiastical  administration  they  have  little  in- 
centive to  plunge  into  the  social  tasks  and  problems  of 
the  day.  It  is  a  common  complaint  on  the  part  of  the 
soldiers  that  the  Church  never  cared  anything  about 


160        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

them,  hence  they  never  cared  anything  about  the  Church. 
The  clergymen  themselves  will  readily  admit,  in  many 
cases,  at  least,  that  they  are  divorced  from  the  people. 
In  this  situation  it  is  inevitable  that  the  Church  should 
decline;  in  this  situation  the  Church  ought  to  decline, 
since  it  cannot  fulfill  its  function  in  the  world  while  it 
lives  over  the  heads  of  the  men  in  the  street.  The  ser- 
mons that  one  hears  in  the  average  Church  in  which  a 
middle  aged  clergyman  officiates  will  reveal  the  fact 
that  the  preacher  does  not  take  his  start  from  the  facts 
of  human  existence.  On  one  occasion  I  heard  a  chaplain 
who  had  just  come  from  the  front  tell  of  a  fellow  chap- 
lain who  had  preached  to  a  company  of  men  just 
emerged  from  an  experience  of  eight  days  under  fire  in 
the  front  line  on  the  subject,  "Does  the  Holy  Spirit  pro- 
ceed from  the  Father  or  from  the  Father  and  the  Son  ?" 
The  Church  knows  more  about  heaven  than  it  does  about 
the  earth,  and  it  knows  next  to  nothing  about  heaven. 
Its  theology,  its  concerns,  the  very  tones  of  its  ministers 
unfit  it  to  grasp  the  life  of  the  times.  The  people  know 
this,  and  they  see  no  good  in  such  an  institution.  Here 
is  the  secret  of  much  of  the  opposition  which  the  Church 
encounters. 

There  is  the  further  fact  that  the  divisions  in  the 
Church  serve  to  repel  the  people.  The  average  man  sees 
no  sense  in  such  divisions,  since  they  are  based  on  things 
which  do  not  interest  him  in  the  least;  when  the 
Churches  themselves  admit  that  the  things  upon  which 
they  differ  are  details  and  not  fundamentals  and  at  the 
same  time  set  so  much  store  by  the  details  that  they  re- 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  WAR    161 

fuse  to  get  together,  the  average  man  repudiates  them. 
It  seems  to  him  that  they  spend  more  energy  caring 
for  their  details  than  in  pushing  their  fundamentals. 
In  this  he  is  undoubtedly  right.  When  the  war  broke 
out  everything  else  united  in  a  common  task.  Political 
and  social  differences  were  forgotten,  old  animosities 
were  laid  aside.  But  the  Church  refused  to  unite,  and 
to-day  her  divisions  are  among  her  greatest  handicaps. 
And  by  keeping  them  up  she  is  more  and  more  estrang- 
ing the  people. 

The  following  extract  from  Sherwood  Eddy  will 
show  the  situation  in  too  many  cases:  "In  the  last 
hospital  we  visited,  the  young  American  Episcopal 
chaplain  working  with  one  of  our  own  units  asked  the 
writer  to  accompany  him  one  morning  to  help  him  in 
cheering  up  the  patients,  giving  them  Testaments,  meet- 
ing their  needs,  and  answering  their  doubts  and  diffi- 
culties. While  we  were  proceeding  through  one  of  the 
wards,  the  Nonconformist  chaplain  came  by.  The 
writer  was  speaking  to  a  poor  boy  who  was  dying.  The 
chaplain  seemed  shocked  and  surprised  that  we  were 
speaking  to  one  of  his  patients  without  his  permission. 
The  young  Episcopal  chaplain  explained  that  he  felt 
sure  the  chaplain  would  not  mind  if  we  tried  to  help 
the  men.  Although  he  followed  him  out  of  the  ward  and 
tried  his  best  to  make  his  peace  with  him,  the  chaplain 
reported  the  matter,  and  we  were  prevented  from  doing 
personal  Christian  work  in  neighboring  hospitals.  The 
Roman  Catholic  chaplain  in  the  next  hospital,  a  most 
consecrated  and  earnest  man,  has  managed  to  get  a  mili- 


162        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

tary  rule  passed  that  no  services  can  be  held  in  any  ward 
of  the  hospital  unless  every  Eoman  Catholic  patient  is 
bodily  carried  out.  This  has  successfully  prevented  the 
holding  of  any  Christian  services  whatsoever,  Catholic 
or  Protestant.  To  give  another  instance — a  personal 
friend  of  the  writer,  a  young  Anglican  clergyman,  a 
widely  known  college  principal,  was  serving  in  one  of 
the  huts  of  a  Convalescent  Camp.  He  had  made  the 
acquaintance  of  the  patients  in  some  twelve  wards  and 
was  going  the  rounds  every  morning  telling  the  war 
news,  giving  oranges  to  the  fevered,  and  cheering  up 
the  depressed.  The  Commandant  came  with  apologies 
and  told  him  that  although  he  was  doing  the  best  Chris- 
tian work  in  thethospital  it  must  be  discontinued,  as  the 
chaplain  objected.  Our  friend,  who  was  a  clergyman  of 
the  same  communion  as  the  chaplain,  called  upon  him 
and  asked  if  he  had  any  objection  to  the  distribution  of 
fruit.  He  replied  that  if  our  friend  did  this  it  would 
give  an  unfair  advantage  to  his  work  as  his  particular 
organization  would  get  the  credit,  and  that  he,  as  the 
chaplain,  must  'push  his  own  show.'  To  continue  in  the 
words  of  our  friend :  'Then  I  asked  him  if  I  could  send 
the  fruit  through  the  lady  workers  or  the  hut  orderlies, 
or  the  Tommies  who  were  friends  of  the  wounded.  But 
he  refused  all.  So  I  asked  him  if  he  would  distribute 
them  if  I  gave  them.  This  he  agreed  to,  and  I  have 
sent  them  to  him  since  then.  But  he  is  too  busy.'  The 
oranges  were  not  distributed,  and  our  friend  concludes : 
'I  am  out  against  the  whole  principle  on  which  he  acts. 
I  don't  think  he  is  much  to  be  blamed.  He  is  one  of  the 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  WAR    163 

best;  a  keen,  hard  working,  pleasant  man,  zealous  for 
his  own  show,  and  in  its  interests  doing  much  for  the 
men.  And  in  his  principle  of  action  he  is  not  an  ex- 
ception, but  a  common  type  of  the  Anglican  padre  as  I 
have  met  him  in  many  lands.  They  are  trained  and 
encouraged  to  push  their  own  show.  But  this  keen- 
ness on  one's  own  show  rather  than  on  men,  is  the  very 
essence  of  the  sin  of  schism,  and  the  very  root  of  Phari- 
saism. Now,  as  a  rule,  all  the  sects  stand  for  their  own 
show  first,  and  men  know  it.  I  am  ashamed  to  be  a 
parson  to-day.  Men  were  not  made  for  any  Church, 
but  the  Church  for  them.' "  ("With  Our  Soldiers  in 
France,"  156-158.) 

The  sight  of  a  divided  Church,  divided  in  most 
cases  over  the  merest  trivialities  in  comparison  to  funda- 
mental agreements,  entailing  the  most  tremendous  waste 
and  overlapping  of  energies,  is  calculated  to  repel  and 
disgust  the  average  man ;  and  the  matter  is  made  worse 
by  the  fact  that  the  leaders  of  the  ecclesiastical  organi- 
zations alone  are  responsible  for  the  situation,  since 
the  denominational  divisions  have  long  since  lost  the 
loyalty  of  the  laity. 

Another  cause  of  the  present  antagonism  to  the 
Church  is  found  in  the  wide  spread  feeling  that  the 
Church  does  not  properly  represent  Christianity.  Re- 
ligion is  not  suffering  overmuch,  and  Christianity,  while 
it  is  the  object  of  attack,  is  still  supreme  in  the  world. 
In  this  situation  the  Church  could  not  decline  except  the 
people  believed  it  to  be  unrepresentative  of  Christ. 
Such  sentiments  appear  especially  among  the  soldiers. 


164*        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

They  seem  to  associate  all  that  they  deem  noble  with 
the  name  of  Christ,  and  "The  White  Comrade"  secures 
their  love  and  worship.  They  realize  His  religion  means 
love,  peace,  goodness,  salvation — the  very  negation  of 
everything  this  war  means;  they  are  quite  sure  that  if 
Christ  had  His  way  this  horror  would  not  have  hap- 
pened ;  and  they  are  longing  for  the  time  to  come  when 
Christ  may  have  His  way,  for  no  person  hates  war  so 
cordially  as  the  common  soldier.  Therefore  any  move- 
ment that  bids  fair  to  let  Christ  have  His  way  may  be 
sure  of  the  support  of  these  men. 

They  draw  away  from  or  ignore  the  Church  for  the 
simple  reason  that  they  do  not  see  the  Christ  influence 
emanating  from  it.  It  stands,  in  their  opinion,  for  a 
smug  respectability.  It  does  not  seem  to  insist  upon 
morality  very  much,  and  upon  social  justice  not  at  all. 
Its  social  activity  does  not  reflect  its  prayers,  and  to  the 
soldier  it  seems  to  represent  the  very  Pharisaism  which 
Christ  so  bitterly  denounced.  If  it  ever  cared  much  for 
them,  common  men  of  the  streets,  before  the  war  they 
never  found  it  out.  And  its  love  for  them  in  the  pres- 
ent crisis  does  not  seem  to  affect  them  much.  It  over- 
shoots the  mark,  and  in  many  cases  even  verifies  the 
suspicion  they  have  always  entertained  concerning  it. 
For  its  clergymen  are  coddling  them  and  flattering  them 
without  making  any  serious  attempts  to  convert  them; 
and  they  even  go  so  far  as  to  excuse  the  most  immoral 
practices  and  assure  the  men  that  they  will  be  saved  if 
they  are  brave  and  die  as  true  Britishers.  You  cannot 
deceive  the  soldier  in  any  such  way;  he  instinctively 


THE  CHURCH  AND  T.HE  WAR         165 

understands  that  this  is  not  the  way  of  Christ.  On  one 
occasion  an  English  chaplain,  wholly  unknown  to  me, 
recognized  me  as  an  American  hy  the  cut  of  my  coat 
and,  leaving  the  company  of  soldiers  with  whom  he  had 
been  drinking  and  smoking,  came  to  me  with  an  offer  of 
whiskey  and  cigarettes.  "You  will  like  these,"  he  said, 
"for  they  are  American  brands."  I  declined  his  kind 
offer  and  handed  him  my  card  with  the  remark,  "I  am 
a  clergyman  and  hence  do  not  drink  whiskey."  He 
seemed  not  in  the  least  abashed,  rather  surprised,  and 
merely  replied,  "Oh,  well,  this  is  war."  But  tha  soldiers 
enjoyed  the  incident  immensely  and  were  rather  harsh 
in  their  ridicule  of  the  chaplain.  And  later  one  of  them 
said  to  me,  "He  had  better  have  your  ideas  or  you  had 
better  have  his  cross  and  collar !" 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  the  European  Church  did  very 
little  in  the  war.  There  was  a  "Church  Army,"  organ- 
ized in  imitation  of  the  Salvation  Army,  and  supposedly 
in  opposition  to  it,  but  its  influence  was  nil.  In  social 
endeavor,  and  even  in  evangelistic  religion,  the  Y.  M. 
C.  A.  supplanted  the  Church,  and  the  Church  seemed 
perfectly  willing  to  give  way,  knowing  that  in  her  di- 
vided state  she  was  entirely  impotent  to  deal  with  the 
situation.  She  sent  out  her  chaplains,  but  they  accom- 
plished little;  they  were  either  out  of  touch  with  the 
problems  of  life  and  could  make  no  appeal  to  the  men, 
else  they  were  "good  fellows"  with  them,  socially  popu- 
lar but  religiously  uninspected.  At  home  the  Church 
preached  the  war,  prayed  for  the  war,  and  urged  en- 
listment. But  while  she  thought  that  in  this  way  she 


166        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

was  rendering  a  great  service,  the  public  did  not  con- 
sider this  any  service  at  all.  Little  thanks  the  Church 
received  for  her  prayers  "and  moral  sanctions.  No  man 
would  be  excused  from  military  duty,  remarks  a  recent 
writer,  on  the  ground  that  he  devotes  so  many  hours 
per  day  to  praying  for  the  war.  These  things  were  taken 
as  a  matter  of  course,  deserving  neither  thanks  nor 
attention ;  they  did  not  count  in  the  balance  either  way. 
Over  against  this,  however,  there  were  certain  things 
which  make  some  people  believe  that  the  Church  did 
not  support  the  war  sincerely.  Leading  the  list  was  her 
opposition  to  a  policy  of  reprisals  in  the  matter  of  air 
raids.  The  people  demanded  reprisals,  that  the  Hun 
be  repaid  in  his  own  coin.  They  wanted  British  air- 
ships to  sail  over  German  towns  and  bomb  unprotected 
German  people,  as  the  Germans  themselves  had  treated 
the  British.  The  king  desired  this,  although  it  makes 
not  the  least  difference  in  England  what  the  king  de- 
sires. Ministers  of  state  wanted  it,  so  did  the  army, 
and  the  same  is  true  of  the  public  generally.  But  it 
was  opposed  by  the  Church,  which,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  some  leading 
educators,  long  prevented  it.  The  argument  was  that 
their  country  had  conducted  the  war  on  a  high  plane  and 
should  not  descend  to  barbarism  for  the  simple  reason 
that  the  enemy  descended  to  it.  There  was  no  military 
advantage  to  be  gained  by  returning  evil  for  evil,  and 
it  would  even  work  against  military  success  by  forcing 
the  withdrawal  of  airships  from  the  fronts.  The  posi- 
tion taken  by  the  Church  leaders  was  right,  and  the 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  WAR         167 

only  one  morally  defensible ;  if  it  could  have  been  main- 
tained England  would  have  come  out  of  the  war  morally 
redeemed  from  the  disgrace  which  some  of  her  past  ac-, 
tions  have  brought  upon  her,  and  then  even  those  who 
favored  reprisals  would  be  proud  of  her.  But  hatred 
held  sway  to  such  an  extent  that  most  of  the  people  were 
even  willing  ^jeopardize  success  at  the  front  to  wreak 
vengeance  upon  German  women  and  children,  whose 
destruction  would  in  nowise  help  win  the  war.  In 
fact,  it  might  have  defeated  its  purpose  by  cementing 
the  people,  as  the  German  outrages  did  in  England. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  policy  of  ruthlessness  on 
the  part  of  the  Hun  was  the  thing  which  united  England 
and  made  possible  the  creation  of  a  mighty  army  by 
the  volunteer  system.  But  the  people  saw  red.  "Let 
the  gutters  run  full  with  the  blood  of  German  women 
and  children" — this,  says  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
was  the  sentiment  expressed  in  many  letters  he  re- 
ceived. 

Coupled  with  this  was  the  exemption  of  the  clergy,  a 
cause  of  dissatisfaction  that  was  practically  universal. 
Over  and  over  again  have  I  heard  complaints  based  on 
this  score.  It  was  not  that  the  young  clergymen  were 
unwilling  to  "join  up";  they  were  not  permitted  by 
their  superiors  to  enlist.  Some  of  them,  it  is  true, 
entered  the  army  regardless,  but  in  so  doing  they 
doubtless  forfeited  all  hope  of  preference  in  their  pro- 
fession after  the  war,  and  the  chances  are  that  they 
will  not  return  to  it.  The  people  feel,  and  rightly  so, 
that  there  was  no  justice  in  exempting  the  young  clergy- 


168         SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

man,  and  the  fact  that  he  was  exempted  drew  him  apart 
from  the  common  run  of  men — and  he  was  already  too 
far  apart  from  them.  And  it  caused  the  clergy  to  be 
regarded  as  a  group  of  unpatriotic  "slackers;"  the 
speeches  and  prayers  of  a  set  of  men  who  will  not 
serve  their  country  by  bearing  arms  avail  little.  But 
the  most  serious  aspect  of  this  matter  is  the  fact  that 
after  the  war  we  are  likely  to  have  clergymen  who  are 
still  more  out  of  touch  with  life,  who  missed  the 
experiences  which  most  of  their  fellows  underwent,  and 
who  must  bear  the  stigma  of  missing  it  for  unpatriotic 
reasons.  Unless  this  can  be  corrected  there  is  little  hope 
for  the  Anglican  Church  in  the  future. 

Practically  all  of  this  opposition  is  against  the  dom- 
inating or  established  Church  in  the  various  countries; 
in  Italy  and  France  the  Roman  Catholic  and  in  Eng- 
land the  Anglican  communions  bear  the  brunt  of  the 
dissatisfaction.  With  the  Nonconformists  the  case  is 
different,  for  while  they  suffer  from  the  general  religious 
uncertainty  and  the  disrepute  which  has  overtaken  the 
leading  ecclesiastical  organizations,  they  do  not  meet 
such  bitter  denunciation  as  falls  to  the  lot  of  the  others. 
I  took  the  liberty  of  pointing  out  to  a  group  of  officers, 
whose  criticism  of  the  Church  had  been  quite  sharp, 
the  fact  that  all  of  the  communions  which  had  given 
trouble  in  any  country  were  either  the  possessors  of  or 
claimants  for  political  power,  and  that  the  Nonconform- 
ists had  deported  themselves  better.  All  hands  agree 
in  this ;  even  the  Countess  of  Warwick  admits  that  the 
chapel  has  preserved  its  SQU!  and  its  moral  courage  in 


THE  CHURCH  AND  T,HE  WAR         169 

the  present  crisis.  There  is  toward  it  a  kindlier  feeling 
everywhere.  Nonconformist  clergymen  have  "joined 
up"  more  freely,  they  have  not  dahbled  in  politics  or 
endeavored  to  dictate  to  the  government,  and  they  have 
demeaned  themselves  more  admirably  in  every  way.  It 
was  easier  for  them,  since  they  were  not  looked  to  for 
any  definite  program  or  leadership.  They  at  least  are 
in  touch  with  the  people;  since  their  income  depends 
upon  the  voluntary  contributions  of  the  people  they 
have  a  motive  for  understanding  them  that  is  not  alto- 
gether spiritual.  If  there  is  any  happy  outlook  for  the 
Church  in  Europe  to-day  it  is  in  the  case  of  Noncon- 
formity. And  if  these  communions  would  only  be  con- 
tent to  live  their  own  lives  and  make  their  own  appeals, 
without  the  constant  imitation  of  the  Anglican  ritual 
and  practices,  it  would  be  easy  to  predict  that  they 
would  control  the  society  of  the  future. 

But  the  general  dissatisfaction  against  the  Estab- 
lishment does  not  signify  at  all  that  the  Nonconformist 
Churches  are  gaining  from  it.  Men  do  not  fall  out  with 
the  former  and  then  go  to  the  latter;  they  rather  fall 
out  with  all  and  either  disregard  religion  entirely  or 
are  caught  by  some  of  the  visionary  schemes  of  "natural 
religion,"  unattached  and  unorganized  idealism  like 
that  represented  by  the  Countess  of  Warwick  or  Mr. 
Wells,  and  in  the  end  this  means  a  total  loss  of  religion 
through  the  loss  of  expressional  channels. 

Neither  does  the  dissatisfaction  with  the  Church  in- 
dicate that  religion  is  suffering.  Christianity  suffers, 
although  most  of  the  critics  of  the  Church  do  not  mean 


170        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

it  to,  but  not  in  proportion  with  the  Church  itself. 
Most  of  the  people  who  criticize  the  Church  so  severely 
are  themselves  communicants  of  the  very  Church  they 
criticize.  In  Italy  I  employed  a  guide  and  interpreter, 
a  most  intelligent  and  cultured  man,  possessed  of  a 
wonderful  degree  of  historical  knowledge.  This  man 
was  most  outspoken  against  the  Vatican,  criticizing  it 
unmercifully  on  the  most  reasonable  grounds.  But 
while  he  thus  condemned  the  Church  and  its  entire 
hierarchy  he  was  a  devout  Catholic,  and  when  I  re- 
quired his  services  I  could  always  find  him  on  his 
knees  in  the  Church  of  Santa  Maria  degli  Angeli.  The 
feeling  is  that  religion  must  in  some  manner  be  pre- 
served and  that  an  organization  is  absolutely  necessary 
to  preserve  its  vitality.  The  idea  of  the  Church  is  safe 
in  Europe,  for,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  vociferous 
persons,  the  people  understand  the  necessity  of  some- 
thing that  corresponds  to  it  and  fulfills  its  functions. 
But  they  have  done  with  whatever  hierarchy  exists.  In 
Italy  the  political  pretensions  of  the  Vatican  can  never 
be  realized,  in  France  the  disestablishment  will  be  per- 
manent, in  England  the  Anglican  establishment  is  tot- 
tering to  its  fall.  While  the  world  is  being  made  safe 
for  democracy,  the  Church  is  being  made  safe  for  it 
also.  Henceforth  the  people,  and  not  a  superior  clergy, 
will  have  charge  of  their  own  religious  affairs.  And 
that  will  give  us  a  different  Church,  interpreting  re- 
ligion in  different  terms,  and  affording  different  ave- 
nues for  its  expression  into  living  service. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


OF   RELIGION  AFTER   THE   WAB 

The  person  who  sets  himself  the  task  of  preparing  a 
definite  program  for  the  readjustment  of  the  ideas  of 
religion  and  the  rejuvenation  of  its  spirit  to  meet  the 
changed  conditions  which  will  prevail  after  the  war 
may  well  he  looked  upon  askance,  for  the  problems  are 
such  that  they  can  neither  be  understood  nor  solved 
until  the  war  has  done  its  worst  and  run  its  course.  It 
is  comparatively  easy  to  dissect  and  to  sift  out  the  ele- 
ments that  are  being  discarded;  the  religious  situation 
upon  which  any  one  can  look  does  that  for  us.  But 
to  do  the  constructive  work  is  more  difficult  ;  in  fact  we 
may  say  that  it  is  impossible  to  fully  cover  the  case, 
especially  in  the  matter  of  developing  a  detailed  pro- 
gram systematically  outlined.  This  is  true  in  all  such 
cases,  and  it  has  been  made  the  basis  of  conservative 
protests  against  making  any  sort  of  a  diagnosis.  On  all 
sides  and  at  all  times  we  may  hear  from  the  conserva- 
tive camp,  especially  from  the  superior  clergy  and  the 
ecclesiastical  vested  interests,  frantic  urgings  that  noth- 
ing be  said  against  the  present  order  of  things  until 
one  has  a  fully  prepared  system  which  can  be  auto- 
matically slipped  in  as  a  substitute.  But  advancing 

171 


172        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

things  do  not  go  that  way,  and  never  have.  Faults  al- 
ways stand  revealed  before  we  know  the  method  of  cor- 
rection, and  the  revealing  is  a  prior  necessity  to  the  cor- 
rection. Construction  must  follow  destruction  in  all 
instances,  and  the  diagnostician  is  just  as  important 
as  the  man  who  effects  the  cure  on  the  basis  of  the  diag- 
nosis. We  shall  not,  therefore,  pay  overmuch  attention 
to  the  official  conservatives  who  denounce  us  for  recog- 
nizing the  shortcomings  of  the  present  order  before  we 
are  fully  prepared  to  reconstruct  it  and  make  it  per- 
fect. 

Nevertheless,  we  should  be  able  to  point  out  the  gen- 
eral direction  in  which  the  process  of  reconstruction  will 
move,  and  the  details  of  the  program  will  have  to  be 
discovered  and  applied  when  all  the  facts  are  before 
us  and  as  the  world  goes  on.  Both  the  development  and 
the  application  of  the  remedy  must  be  a  gradual  and 
progressive  process. 

There  are  some,  we  may  be  sure,  who  will  believe  that 
no  reconstruction  will  be  necessary.  Certain  religious 
persons  have  always  opposed  reconstruction  of  "the  faith 
once  delivered  to  the  saints/'  and  they  have  insisted 
on  bringing  under  the  category  of  "the  faith"  all  the 
matters  of  theology,  polity,  and  administration.  As 
they  have  refused  to  recognize  any  signs  of  progress 
anywhere,  it  is  doubtful  if  even  the  war  will  be  suffi- 
cient to  shock  them  out  of  that  attitude.  If  they  had 
their  way  the  Church  would  die  and  Christianity  would 
be  banished  from  the  face  of  the  earth  by  the  natural 
advances  of  civilization.  But  we  need  give  no  heed  to 


RECONSTRUCTION  IN  RELIGION        173 

such  persons.  It  is  as  certain  as  the  shining  of  the  sun 
that  our  religious  ideas  and  processes  will  have  to  be 
reorganized  and  rejuvenated  if  Christianity  is  to  be 
perpetuated  in  the  society  of  this  world  after  this  war. 

It  is  not  strange  that  this  should  be  so,  for  all  other 
influences  will  have  to  submit  to  the  same  process.  The 
only  thing  of  which  we  are  sure  to-day  is  that  we  are 
sure  of  nothing.  Everything  that  we  know  is  being 
tested  in  the  crucible  of  the  world  war,  and  this  in- 
cludes every  idea,  every  institution,  and  every  influence. 
We  cannot  prophesy  that  anything  will  come  out  of  it 
alive ;  we  can  prophesy  that  nothing  will  come  out  of  it 
as  it  went  in.  This  is  true  of  the  home.  Industry,  so- 
cialistic theories,  immorality,  feminist  movements,  dev- 
astation, the  preponderance  in  numbers  of  women  over 
men — these  and  similar  influences  are  attacking  the  old 
conception  of  the  home  with  telling  force,  and  all  kinds 
of  propositions  are  being  put  forth  to  solve  the  sex 
problem  in  its  vital  aspects.  Some  advocate  polygamy, 
some  the  abolition  of  marriage  altogether,  and,  if  we 
may  believe  the  reports,  Germany  has  already  adopted 
most  severe,  unusual,  and  revolting  measures  to  increase 
her  population.  With  all  of  these  things  attacking  the 
home,  we  are  not  sure  what  adaptations  the  future  will 
force  us  to  make  in  our  ideas. 

The  same  situation  pertains  in  relation  to  educa- 
tion. There  is  a  revolt  against  the  German  language, 
German  books,  and  German  scholarship  generally,  and 
this  is  likely  to  continue  for  some  time  after  the  war. 
When  we  consider  the  tremendous  influence  which  Ger- 


174*        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

many  has  been  exerting  in  the  educational  world,  we 
can  easily  see  that  this  protest  must  have  an  abiding 
effect  on  our  ideas.  Education  will  also  be  affected  by 
the  military  or  anti-military  spirit  which  prevails  after 
the  war,  since  the  schools  will  be  called  upon  to  support 
and  inculcate  the  doctrine  which  is  finally  adopted. 

We  are  not  even  sure  what  our  morality  is  to  be  to- 
morrow. To-day  things  are  tolerated  and  excused  that 
would  have  caused  a  storm  of  protest  yesterday.  Pro- 
fanity, liquor  drinking,  sexual  immorality  are  sweeping 
Europe  like  a  storm.  The  niceties  that  have  always 
hedged  the  association  between  the  sexes  have  been 
largely  discarded,  and  the  tone  of  womanhood  has  been 
lowered  appreciably  by  the  industrial  life  and  the  gen- 
eral situation  brought  by  the  war.  It  is  extremely 
possible  that  after  the  war  some  of  the  things  which  we 
have  always  branded  as  sinful  may  be  tolerated  more 
easily,  and  on  the  other  hand  the  reverse  may  be  true 
in  certain  instances.  In  all  of  these  departments  of  our 
life,  and  in  all  others  also,  changes  and  adaptations  are 
likely  to  be  made.  And  we  need  not  expect  religion  to 
be  the  exception;  in  this  department  we  are  likely  to 
see  more  far-reaching  changes  of  attitude  than  else- 
where. 

We  may  be  quite  sure  of  one  thing,  however,  and  that 
is  that  religion  will  not  die.  Nothing  is  more  certain 
than  that,  and  all  the  signs  of  the  times  confirm  it.  The 
Church  might  die,  Christianity  may  suffer,  but  the  vital 
principle  of  religion  will  not  depart  from  the  world. 
And  this  is  true  not  alone  because  religion  is  implanted 


RECONSTRUCTION  IN  RELIGION        175 

deeply  in  human  nature;  the  fact  is  evidenced  by  the 
deepest  movements  of  our  society  to-day.  It  is  an  age 
in  which  the  Church  is  attacked  very  roundly ;  it  is  an 
unchristian  age;  but  it  is  not  an  age  without  religion. 
This  war  has  revealed  the  need  of  God  as  men  before 
have  not  known  it.  Everything  else  has  failed.  Ma- 
terialism has  run  its  course,  and  even  the  soldiers  in 
the  trenches  seem  to  understand  that  the  ultimate  cause 
of  this  war  was  unbelief,  irreverence,  godlessness,  wick- 
edness, and  the  worship  of  matter.  They,  of  all  people, 
understand  how  badly  the  world  stands  in  need  of  God 
and  spiritual  reality.  It  is  the  easiest  thing  in  the 
world  to  talk  personal  religion  to  a  soldier,  because  the 
subject  is  always  at  the  very  top  of  his  mind  ready  to 
come  to  utterance;  usually  it  is  smothered  or  covered 
by  profanity  and  carelessness,  yet  it  is  there,  and  he 
knows  that  there  must  be  a  God  somewhere  in  this  uni- 
verse who  is  capable  of  helping  this  suffering  world. 
In  a  real  sense,  in  spite  of  immorality  and  anti-eccle- 
siasticism,  the  war  has  given  birth  to  the  God-idea. 
And  this  insures  the  perpetuation  of  religion. 

Then  the  philosophic  situation  in  the  world  is  ex- 
tremely favorable  to  religion.  Tyndall's  Belfast  ad- 
dress could  not  get  a  hearing  in  Europe  to-day.  The 
whole  attitude  upon  which  it  stood  has  been  changed. 
The  scientific  orgy  of  the  nineteenth  century  issued  in 
a  mechanistic  philosophy  which  professed  to  bring  all 
the  operations  of  the  world,  the  seen  and  the  unseen, 
under  the  reign  of  physical  force,  matter,  and  motion. 
It  ruled  out  all  ideas  of  a  spiritual  world  and  denied 


176        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

the  presence  of  an  animating  principle  in  man.  So 
confident  did  this  mechanism  become  that  it  openly  pro- 
fessed to  have  dethroned  forever  all  of  the  tenets  upon 
which  our  religion  stood. 

But  in  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  and  the  first 
few  years  of  the  twentieth  century  came  the  great 
idealistic  philosophers  with  their  insistence  upon  Life. 
This  confounded  the  mechanistic  doctors,  for  they 
suddenly  discovered  that  they  had  left  Life  out  of 
their  calculations  and  were  wholly  unable  -to  deal 
with  it  The  result  was  that  scientific  materialism 
lost  the  place  it  had  held  and  was  reduced  to  the  posi- 
tion of  a  starveling  seeking  shelter  among  the  vagaries. 
Even  before  the  war  there  were  but  one  or  two  people  on 
earth  who  still  cared  to  defend  this  system  through  the 
reviews,  and  since  the  war  broke  out  even  they  have 
been  silenced.  The  war  brought  such  things  as  patri- 
otism, generosity,  unselfishness,  sacrifice,  devotion  to 
principle,  duty,  and  kindred  sentiments  forward,  and 
in  their  presence  mechanism  had  to  slink  away;  it 
had  no  place  in  its  machine  for  such  spiritual  elements 
as  these.  And  the  people  were  so  intent  upon  them 
that  materialism  was  smothered.  Even  such  a  man 
as  H.  G.  Wells  needed  nothing  but  this  war  to  shock 
him  out  of  his  religious  indifference  and  give  him  a 
vital  appreciation  of  the  spiritual  values  of  the  uni- 
verse. To-day,  if  we  could  think  about  philosophy, 
idealism  holds  the  field  unchallenged;  it  held  the  field 
even  before  the  war.  And  idealism  is  closely  akin  to 
religion;  in  a  certain  real  sense  we  may  say  it  is  re- 


RECONSTRUCTION  IN  RELIGION        177 

ligion.  It  must  either  issue  in  religion,  else  it  must 
evaporate  into  the  thin  air  and  be  lost.  Herein  lies 
one  of  the  strongest  proofs  that  religion  will  not  be  lost 
out  of  this  world. 

Then  religion  is  in  the  very  air  to-day.  Men  reject 
Christianity  and  they  attack  the  Church,  but  they  set 
great  store  by  religion.  The  presence  of  so  many  vaga- 
ries and  isms  proves  this.  Christian  Science,  Russell- 
ism,  Dowieism,  social-serviceism,  Invisible-Kingism, 
and  the  long  list  of  cults  and  creeds  that  are  pulling 
away  from  Christianity  and  trying  to  set  up  new  re- 
ligions all  testify  to  the  fact  that  religion  is  still  with 
us,  and  will  be  with  us.  The  soldiers  have  it  especially, 
although  they  are  about  the  most  unchristian  of  the  lot. 
They  have  natural  religion,  it  has  been  said  over  and 
over  again.  And  it  is  true.  Over  and  over  again  I 
have  heard  them  of  their  own  will  bring  up  the  subject 
of  religion,  always  to  abuse  the  Church  and  the  clergy, 
always  to  predict  their  overthrow,  but  always  to  end 
with  the  remark,  "But  we  must  be  careful  to  see  that 
religion  does  not  suffer."  I  heard  one  man  make  a 
slighting  remark  about  religion  and  he  was  instantly  re- 
buked by  a  comrade  in  these  "words:  "There's  a  'ell  of 
a  lot  of  us  as  believes  religion's  a  damn  good  thing  for 
the  world."  And  he  was  commended  by  the  crowd, 
although  practically  all  of  them  had  expressed  them- 
selves unfavorably  concerning  the  Church,  the  clergy, 
and  the  entire  paraphernalia  of  Christianity  generally. 
There  are  a  multitude  of  other  signs  which  plainly  sig- 
nify that  religion  is  still  in  the  world  and  that  it  is 


178        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

attracting  a  wider  attention  than  was  given  to  it  a  few 
years  ago. 

But  this  religion  is  not  the  Christian  religion.  Nat- 
ural religion  is  the  best  name  for  it.  It  is  unf ormulat- 
ed  and  undefined;  it  has  no  system  and  no  interpreta- 
tion; it  implies  no  duties  and  offers  no  program  of 
service.  In  this  state  it  cannot  exist.  It  will  filter  out 
into  the  air  and  lose  itself,  or  else  it  will  exist  as  a 
baneful  influence  amongst  us.  This  natural  religion, 
existing  in  the  state  of  dreamy  idealism  and  having  no 
moral  consciousness,  will  issue  in  positive  immorality, 
it  will  unstabilize  our  thinking  and  our  social  action, 
it  will  give  us  no  method  of  gathering  up  religious  in- 
fluences and  moving  them  on  the  social  tasks  of  life. 
It  is  in  that  very  direction  that  the  current  is  moving 
at  the  present  time. 

Not  only  is  this  religion  not  Christianity,  but  there 
is  a  positive  and  well-defined  effort  being  made  to 
disconnect  it  from  Christianity  and  the  Church,  and 
from  all  other  forms  of  organization  likewise.  Its 
leaders  outspokenly  prefer  to  have  their  religion 
drift  in  the  air,  to  be  breathed  and  felt  once  in  a  while 
and  used  for  purposes  of  personal  satisfaction  and 
exhilaration;  but  they  will  not  have  it  attached 
to  a  Church,  or  organization,  they  want  no  clergy, 
no  propagating  movement,  no  devices  through  which  to 
develop,  enhance,  and  cultivate  it.  And,  strange  to  say, 
some  of  these  leaders  who  thus  urge  base  their  objection 
to  an  organization  to  embody  religion  upon  social 
grounds!  In  this  they  are  worse  than  silly;  it  is  the 


RECONSTRUCTION  IN  RELIGION        179 

most  positive  inanity  to  imagine  that  our  social  prob- 
lems and  needs  can  ever  be  solved  and  met  by  religion 
when  that  religion  is  detached  from  all  embodiments 
through  which  effort  and  sentiment  can  be  mobilized, 
multiplied,  and  expressed.  Yet  that  is  exactly  what  is 
proposed  by  the  Countess  of  Warwick  and  other  leaders 
of  the  new  religion,  which  is  the  oldest  kind  of  re- 
ligion. 

A  deliberate  attempt  is  also  being  made  to  destroy 
all  systematized  thought  upon  which  religion  rests. 
Theology  is  discarded,  the  Bible  rejected,  our  doctrines 
repudiated,  and  everything  that  we  have  used  to  give  a 
mental  stability  and  direction  to  our  faith  is  set  aside. 
We  are  left  with  an  odor,  a  sweet  smell,  a  cooling  breeze 
that  drifts  by,  a  sentiment  that  attracts  the  mind  once  in 
a  while — and  we  are  told  that  this  is  the  religion  of  the 
future!  It  is  no  religion  at  all;  it  is  an  emasculation 
that  cannot  live,  and  cannot  be  comprehended  while  it 
does  live.  If  any  reasonable,  well  balanced,  and  ordi- 
narily intelligent  man  can  obtain  any  sensible  meaning 
from  Mr.  Wells'  theory  of  an  "Invisible  King,"  I  should 
personally  like  to  be  enlightened  by  that  man.  I  will 
venture  the  assertion  that  on  the  basis  of  pure  common 
intelligence  Mr.  Wells  himself  does  not  understand  his 
own  writings  about  "a  finite  god,"  and  God  being 
youth,  courage,  and  the  like.  Words  without  an  anchor, 
without  a  message,  without  a  meaning — that  is  what 
comes  of  most  of  this  material  that  is  printed  as  reli- 
gious theorizing. 

Now  all  of  this  must  not  be  allowed  to  obscure  the 


180         SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

minds  and  hearts  of  the  people.  Yet  they  have  been 
weaned  away  from  the  Church  as  it  has  operated  and 
from  Christianity  as  we  have  expressed  it.  They  must 
be  drawn  back — not  for  the  sake  of  the  Church  and 
Christianity,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  people  and  the 
world.  This  means  that  our  religion  must  be  rejuve- 
nated, filled  with  deeper  meaning,  and  quickened  by  a 
newer  spirit.  To  outline  the  details  of  such  a  process 
of  rejuvenation  is  a  task  which  cannot  be  accomplished 
at  the  present  time  and  at  one  sitting.  The  best  we 
can  hope  to  do  is  to  mark  out  the  way  which  such  a 
process  will  be  very  likely  to  take.  And  that  way  will 
be  found  along  the  line  of  a  new  harmony  and  a  new 
correlation  between  religion  and  theology  and  between 
religion  and  sociology. 

When  we  speak  of  a  new  correlation  between  religion 
and  theology  we  broach  a  subject  with  which  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  deal,  but  with  which  some  sort  of  dealing  is  im- 
peratively demanded.  It  is  a  matter  of  common  accep- 
tance that  theology  has  fallen  into  disrepute  in  these 
modern  times.  It  has  become  the  butt  of  ridicule  and 
slighting  remarks  not  only  from  those  who  might  be 
expected  to  oppose  it  but  also  from  ministers  and  Chris- 
tian leaders  who  might  be  expected  to  uphold  it.  The 
world  has  moved,  attitudes  have  changed,  and  social 
problems  have  taken  on  new  phases,  but  theology  has  re- 
mained practically  the  same.  Each  contemplated  ad- 
vance has  been  strenuously  opposed,  and  by  the  very 
persons  whose  position  in  the  Church  qualified  them 
to  speak  for  the  system,  and  thus  the  science  has  been 


RECONSTRUCTION  IN  RELIGION        181 

effectually  divorced  from  the  life  of  our  times.  When 
it  was  discovered  that  conservatives  would  not  permit 
a  restatement  or  an  adaptation  of  theological  formulas 
the  enlightened  world  contented  itself  with  ignoring 
them.  No  other  course  was  open,  and  so  it  has  come 
about  that  practically  no  persons  take  theology  serious- 
ly to-day,  unless  it  be  those  invested  with  Episcopal  au- 
thority, whose  influence  on  the  life  of  the  times  is  nil. 
Many  ministers,  and  the  brainiest  and  best  of  them  in 
many  cases,  no  longer  feel  it  incumbent  upon  them  to 
accept  the  ancient  creeds  to  wtich  their  Churches  stand 
theoretically  committed,  and  the  laity  neither  know  nor 
care  that  such  creeds  exist 

This  spirit  has  brought  about  a  change  unconsciously. 
It  has  not,  indeed,  changed  the  statements  but  it  has 
revolutionized  the  whole  theological  attitude  of  the 
Church.  So  it  has  come  to  pass  that  most  of  the 
Churches  have  one  theology  in  their  confessions  and 
quite  another  in  actual  operation  in  the  minds  and 
spirits  of  the  people.  For  example,  predestination  may 
still  be  recorded  in  certain  theological  treatises  the 
authority  of  which  has  never  been  revoked,  yet  it  has 
not  the  least  influence  in  congregations  that  worship 
under  the  theoretical  flag  of  Calvinism.  The  ancient 
two-nature  doctrine  of  the  person  of  Christ  still  stands, 
but  who  believes  it  \  Its  adherents  have  been  scattered 
so  that  in  the  number  one  can  find  scarcely  any  represen- 
tative people.  The  same  is  largely  true  of  the  doctrines 
of  literal  inspiration,  the  atonement,  soteriology,  and 
many  others.  The  spirit  of  the  people  is  abreast  of 


182        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

the  times,  but  the  formulated  statements  have  drifted 
to  the  rear;  so  for  practical  purposes  we  might  throw 
overboard  all  the  formulated  statements  of  theology 
which  we  possess  and  never  miss  them — or  we  may 
keep  them  and  never  be  aware  that  they  exist.  So  little 
interest  do  we  have  in  these  creeds  to-day  that  heresy 
trials  are  practically  unknown. 

In  this  situation  it  surely  seems  as  if  those  inter- 
ested in  scientific  statements  of  the  foundations  of  our 
faith  would  be  intensely  concerned  for  restatements  that 
would  preserve  the  fundamentals  and  again  commend 
them  to  the  people.  But  they  are  not.  One  of  the 
strangest  facts  in  the  life  of  religion  to-day  is  the  fact 
that  in  the  present  situation  the  conservatives  are  de- 
termined to  keep  these  formulations  just  as  they  are, 
in  the  same  state  in  which  the  people  have  rejected  them. 
One  of  the  great  Methodist  communions  recently  made 
an  attempt  to  restate  its  creed,  under  the  leadership  of 
its  most  noted  author  and  teacher  of  theological  works. 
Instantly  conservatism,  under  the  leadership  of  the 
superior  clergy,  put  up  a  formidable  opposition,  and 
since  the  superior  clergy  possessed  absolute  power  over 
the  common  clergy  the  movement  was  decisively  de- 
feated. 

It  is  perfectly  clear  that  religion  and  theology  can 
never  be  harmonized  and  correlated  again  as  long  as 
this  attitude  is  kept  up.  Try  as  we  will,  preach  as  we 
may,  legislate  to  our  heart's  content,  write  for  the  re- 
ligious papers  as  much  as  we  choose — the  people  of  a 
modern  world  are  not  going  to  take  seriously  again  the 


RECONSTRUCTION  IN  RELIGION        183 

ancient  theological  conceptions  whicH  they  have  now 
forgotten. 

We  should  not  worry  about  such  a  state  of  affairs 
were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  theology  is  of  great  and 
vital  importance  to  a  people.  When  the  modern  world 
considers  theology  as  such  #,  worthless  remnant  of 
the  past,  fit  only  to  be  discarded  and  serving  when  re- 
tained only  to  prevent  and  obscure  religious  values,  it 
makes  a  mistake  from  which  it  is  certain  to  suffer.  Re- 
ligion cannot  be  safely  divorced  from  systematic  state- 
ments and  mental  processes.  Such  a  divorce  gives  us 
an  unattached  mysticism,  a  sentimental  emotionalism 
that  is  more  likely  to  issue  in  vagaries  and  immorality 
than  in  Christian  character ;  this  is  the  process  through 
which  the  world  to-day  teems  with  foolish  isms  and 
fantastic  religious  movements  of  a  thousand  sorts.  We 
need  a  systematized  theology,  without,  however,  the  pas- 
sion for  system  which  possessed  our  fathers  and  which 
gave  us  some  of  the  hard  and  fast  doctrines  which  have 
little  to  commend  them  except  that  they  dovetail  excel- 
lently into  other  similar  doctrines. 

Now  it  is  quite  clear  that  the  theology  of  the  future 
must  not  make  the  old  mistake  of  explaining  all  things, 
seen  and  unseen,  earthly  and  eternal.  If  God,  Christ, 
and  the  Bible  do  not  see  fit  to  reveal  to  a  scientific  cer- 
tainty the  intricacies  of  the  atonement,  the  person  of 
Christ,  the  time  of  the  parousia,  the  nature  of  future 
punishment,  the  location  and  extent  of  heaven,  we  may 
be  quite  sure  that  a  theology  which  we  can  build  upon 
the  revelation  given  us  through  them  will  fail  in  ex- 


184        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

plaining  these  things.  We  have  taken  the  position  that 
theology  must  begin  where  revelation  leaves  off  and 
amplify  it;  we  must  understand  that  theology  has  no 
function  except  to  assist  us  in  applying  religious  facts 
and  influences  to  the  living  of  our  lives  in  this  en- 
vironment. 

Thus  our  theology  should  reconstruct  itself  along 
lines  of  personality  and  social  endeavor.  Its  primary 
function  is  to  develop  a  personal  religious  life,  to  ad- 
just this  life  to  the  social  tasks  and  needs  of  a  modern 
world,  and  in  connection  with  those  tasks  to  call  out 
the  creative  genius  of  a  religious  man.  It  is  designed 
to  hold  up  before  religious  people,  and  through  them  to 
the  world,  the  supreme  value  of  spiritual  elements,  and 
thus  enable  Christian  men  to  project  these  values  into 
the  various  departments  of  this  world's  activity.  The 
greatest  need  of  the  religious  world  to-day  seems  to  be 
a  new  theology,  a  theology  written  from  the  social  point 
of  view  and  designed  to  plunge  Christianity  into  the 
very  midst  of  the  struggles  of  this  world.  We  know 
enough  about  heaven  and  hell,  death  and  immortality, 
atonement  and  the  person  of  Christ — at  any  rate  we 
know  all  that  we  are  likely  to  know  about  these  things. 
But  we  do  not  yet  understand  how  to  live  in  this 
world.  We  do  not  know  what  the  duties  of  a  religious 
man  actually  are.  We  are  actually  confused  about  what 
is  right  and  what  is  wrong.  We  must  understand  where 
this  world  is  going  and  when  we  may  know  it  has  ar- 
rived. If  theology  can  teach  us  these  things  it  may 
liva 


RECONSTRUCTION  IN  RELIGION        185 

"Now  our  task  in  this  regard  is  very  like  that  faced 
by  the  early  Church;  we  again  must  make  natural  re- 
ligion issue  into  Christianity.  The  whole  world  is  full 
of  religion  and  notions  about  God,  duty,  and  salvation. 
But  these  notions  do  not  affect  life;  they  do  not  even 
make  those  who  hold  them  better  men.  Upon  them, 
however,  Christianity,  or  any  other  system,  must  build. 
It  is  not  so  much  a  question  of  meeting  and  overcom- 
ing these  things  as  it  is  a  question  of  commending  our 
faith  to  their  adherents  so  that  they  may  be  absorbed 
into  our  body.  In  the  process  of  absorption  the  extra- 
neous features  will  slough  off.  Such  was  the  process  in 
the  early  Church.  Christianity  did  not  convert  the 
world,  she  absorbed  it.  Our  enemies  have  made  much 
of  the  fact  that  Constantine  simply  converted  pagan 
temples  into  Christian  churches  by  an  edict,  and  that 
paganism  merged  into  the  new  religion  because  it  be- 
came popular.  The  basis  of  this  complaint  is  not 
valid  for  a  complaint.  This  was  the  right  process, 
whatever  we  may  think  about  the  methods  of  its  ac- 
complishment. We  are  not  called  to  destroy  all  that 
differs,  for  we  must  know  that  these  varying  religions 
express  truth  and  are  a  part  of  the  world's  search  for 
God.  Our  mission  is  one  of  absorption,  and  we  trust  in 
the  transcending  superiority  of  Christianity  to  keep 
itself  pure  while  it  accomplishes  the  process  of  amalga- 
mation. 

While  our  task  is  remarkably  similar  to  that  of  early 
Christianity,  it  is  much  more  difficult — we  can  make 
this  statement  with  a  full  consciousness  of  its  meaning 


186        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

and  implication.  It  will  be  more  difficult  because  we 
must  commend  the  already  familiar.  We  do  not  have 
the  charm  of  novelty,  the  appeal  of  sacrifice,  and  the 
leverage  of  the  attraction  of  the  Christian  superiority 
over  anything  else  known.  Here  lay  the  power  of  the 
early  fathers,  here  lies  the  power  of  missionaries  to-day. 
But  in  our  situation  we  have  to  stop  a  trend  that  is  un- 
mistakably away  from  us  and  to  turn  it  backward  to- 
ward the  thing  which  it  left.  To  many  this  will  seem 
like  retrogression,  this  going  back.  Of  course  the  re- 
ligion to  which  they  return  will  not  be  the  same  in 
spirit,  but  the  difference  will  perhaps  be  too  subtle  to 
be  caught  by  the  mass.  And  the  fact  that  the  creation 
of  the  difference  will  be  bitterly  opposed  by  some  of 
those  influential  in  the  Church  will  make  the  task 
doubly  difficult. 

In  the  recreation  of  theology  in  the  light  of  the  prob- 
lems before  us  the  most  important  element  will  doubt- 
less be  the  making  of  a  new  apologetic.  Under  the  old 
method  of  defending  and  commending  the  faith  the 
world  has  gradually  slipped  away  from  us,  and  it  will 
be  useless  effort  to  attempt  the  task  of  drawing  it  back 
with  these  same  arguments.  It  will  require  an  apolo- 
getic that  is  preeminently  social  and  that  rests  itself 
upon  an  idealistic  philosophy.  We  may  as  well  dis- 
continue the  process,  in  which  many  writers  have  re- 
cently engaged,  of  commending  Christianity  by  adopt- 
ing half-compromises  with  materialism.  The  science  of 
the  nineteenth  century  issued  in  a  mechanistic  philos- 
ophy and  sadly  injured  religion.  Its  advance  was  not 


RECONSTRUCTION  IN  RELIGION        187 

stopped  by  our  defenses  and  neither  did  we  benefit  by 
our  attempts  at  adaptations.  Christian  leaders  were 
quite  foolish  in  their  opposition  to  the  advance  of  scien- 
tific knowledge,  and  when  these  adaptations  were  at- 
tempted it  appeared  as  if  we  were  making  a  compro- 
mise for  the  sake  of  saving  our  faces  and  a  remnant 
of  our  system.  The  saviors  of  religion  were  men  who 
labored  not  for  religion  at  all,  who  were  not  even  on 
good  terms,  in  many  cases,  with  the  Church;  men  like 
Eucken,  Bergson,  James,  and  their  fellow  laborers  de- 
stroyed the  mechanistic  scheme  by  upholding  the  tenets 
of  idealism,  and  they  thereby  saved  religion,  because  it 
cannot  exist  save  in  an  idealistic  atmosphere.  We, 
therefore,  are  under  the  necessity  of  insisting  upon  the 
idealistic  position  at  all  times  and  under  all  circum- 
stances. Nor  must  we  be  caught  by  the  attractions  of 
Pragmatism,  which  after  all  is  akin  to  materialism  in 
that  it  makes  this  world  and  its  society  the  final  test  of 
truth.  It  affords*us  no  final  criterion  for  the  judgment 
of  reality,  and  in  the  end  it  will  put  an  effectual  stop  to 
the  search  for  it. 

And  the  new  apologetic  must  give  us  a  new  view  of 
revelation  and  the  facts  upon  which  we  base  our  faith. 
No  longer  can  the  old  ideas  of  the  Bible  be  maintained. 
Literalism  and  verbal  theories  of  inspiration  are  thor- 
oughly mechanistic.  But  we  have  depended  upon  them, 
and  we  have  as  yet  scarcely  passed  away  from  the  old 
proof-text  method  of  using  revelation  for  purposes  of 
argument.  Here  again  we  retain  in  theory  what  has 
been  rejected  in  practice;  for  the  great  body  of  the 


188        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

people  no  longer  regard  revelation  in  this  light,  even 
though  the  Church  has  not  yet  had  the  courage  and  wis- 
dom to  repudiate  the  old  doctrines.  We  can  no  longer 
maintain  faith  in  the  Bible  on  these  premises.  Literal- 
ism gives  us  the  fantastic  vagaries  like  pre-millenarian- 
ism,  with  its  teaching  about  the  apostasy  of  the  world 
and  the  necessity  for  the  wrecking  of  this  social  order 
in  order  to  achieve  the  Kingdom.  If  the  adherents  of 
this  scheme  were  thoroughgoing  and  logical  they  would 
be  outbreaking  sinners  and  criminals  and  they  would 
urge  crime  as  a  duty  under  God,  since  this  is  the  re- 
vealed and  prophesied  will  of  God;  surely  if  God  can- 
not establish  His  Kingdom  until  this  world  goes  to  hell, 
we  are  justified  in  sending  it  to  hell  as  speedily  as  pos- 
sible. 

Ingersoll  and  other  superficial  infidels  like  him  used 
the  position  of  the  Church  in  discrediting  the  Bible, 
and  they  would  have  succeeded  if  that  position  had  been 
maintained.  The  Bible  can  be  torn  to  pieces  and  dis- 
credited if  we  base  our  defense  of  it  upon  the  literalistic 
method;  it  will  be  a  happy  day  when  this  is  officially 
recognized  as  it  is  to-day  unofficially  recognized.  What 
message  would  Ingersoll  have  to-day  ?  None !  The  so- 
called  Higher  Criticism,  which  is  still  a  bugaboo  in 
some  quarters,  has  saved  us  by  giving  us  a  new  view  of 
inspiration  and  revelation,  so  that  it  is  no  longer  neces- 
sary to  dispute  the  accepted  and  demonstrated  facts  of 
science  and  history  in  order  to  have  religious  faith 
founded  upon  the  Bible.  And  a  crying  need  of  our  time 
is  for  a  recognition  of  these  newer  and  better  views  and 


RECONSTRUCTION  IN  RELIGION        189 

an  educational  movement  which  will  insure  their  ac- 
ceptance by  the  masses  of  people  who  affiliate  with  our 
Churches  and  call  themselves  Christian.  Let  literal 
interpretation  go  forever.  Let  verbal  inspiration  go 
with  it.  Then,  and  not  until  then,  can  we  have  a  dy- 
namic and  intelligent  faith  and  an  apologetic  which 
will  enable  us  to  defend  the  Bible  before  all  comers. 
Then  pre-millenarianism  and  its  allied  nuisances  will 
disappear  and  a  consistent  and  intelligent  faith  will 
come  into  its  own. 

I  recently  read  an  article  in  which  the  Kaiser  of  the 
German  Empire  was  identified  with  the  biblical  Anti- 
christ because  there  were  six  letters  in  the  name,  be- 
cause he  has  six  sons,  and  because  the  number  of  the 
letters  as  they  stand  in  the  English  alphabet,  with  a  six 
placed  by  each,  total  666  when  added.  Another  writer 
has  found  that  the  automobile  with  electric  head-lights 
fulfills  an  ancient  prophecy  and  proves  that  "the  end  of 
the  age"  is  near  at  hand.  Another  has  taken  the  trouble 
to  find  out  how  many  people  travel  on  ships  and  rail- 
way trains  in  a  given  time,  finding  thereby  the  ful- 
fillment of  the  prediction  that  "men  shall  run  to  and 
fro"  and  the  speedy  destruction  of  the  world.  Others 
find  signs  of  "the  end"  in  the  growth  of  schools  and 
colleges,  the  spread  of  culture,  the  circulation  of  the 
Bible,  and  a  great  line  of  other  facts.  And  these  fool- 
ish interpretations  are  accepted  by  large  numbers  of 
people  because  they  seem  reasonable  according  to  the 
theory  of  inspiration  and  interpretation  they  have  been 
taught.  A  theological  school  is  in  existence  to  teach 


190        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

these  vagaries.  Such  a  method  makes  the  most  ingenious 
man  the  best  interpreter  of  holy  writ.  And  if  we  start 
from  their  premises  we  will  have  difficulty  in  refuting 
them.  But  it  is  needless  to  point  out  that  they  are 
bringing  the  Bible  and  our  religion  into  serious  dis- 
repute with  the  intelligent  world,  and  we  are  helpless 
because  we  do  not  have  the  courage  to  repudiate  once  for 
all  these  premises.  There  can  be  no  apologetic  which 
will  defend  the  Scriptures  until  the  tenets  and  the 
methods  of  the  Higher  Criticism  are  accepted.  The 
denunciation  of  the  Higher  Criticism  ought  to  be  an 
offense  that  would  bar  any  man  from  a  Christian  pulpit, 
for  the  historical  spirit  has  been  and  will  continue  to 
be  the  best  friend  that  the  Bible  possesses. 

Now  the  literalists  and  pre-millenarian  faddists  will 
very  strenuously  oppose  all  attempts  to  secure  a  corre- 
lation between  religion  and  sociology.  Most  of  them 
look  upon  sociology  as  their  foe,  since  the  betterment  of 
this  world  would  defeat  the  plans  of  God  and  prevent 
the  establishment  of  the  Kingdom.  I  recently  read  an 
editorial  in  a  leading  periodical  of  premillenarianism 
on  the  subject  of  the  liquor  traffic,  written  in  reply  to  a 
correspondent  who  inquired  whether  Christian  people 
should  patronize  papers  accepting  liquor  advertisements. 
The  position  taken  was  that  such  things  are  immate- 
rial; the  prohibition  movement  was  foolish  and  useless, 
because  this  world  was  in  the  power  of  "the  evil  one" 
and  the  entire  order  must  be  destroyed.  While  a  little 
outspoken,  the  editor  was  logical  and  loyal  to  his  posi- 
tion, and  from  his  spirit  there  emanates  the  wide-spread 


RECONSTRUCTION  IN  RELIGION        191 

antagonism  to  the  social  program  of  the  modern  Church. 

If  we  ever  understand  that  the  genius  of  Christianity 
is  social  we  will  then  know  that  no  greater  duty  rests 
upon  us  than  that  of  harmonizing  religion  and  sociology. 
In  this  direction  the  Church  has  gone  a  long  way, 
through  the  establishment  of  social  centers  and  her  un- 
faltering opposition  to  such  institutions  as  the  saloon, 
but  it  is  evident  that  she  has  scarcely  touched  the  rim  of 
the  problem.  And  she  will  never  solve  it  until  her  the- 
ology is  written  from  the  social  point  of  view,  until  she 
adopts  the  definition  that  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  "an 
ideal  social  order,"  and  until  she  puts  a  social  interpre- 
tation upon  her  message  and  the  facts  on  which  her  re- 
ligion stands. 

The  social  interpretation  of  Christianity  ought  to  in- 
clude several  elements.  The  question  of  teleology  must 
be  settled  once  for  all,  and  we  must  understand  just 
what  God  intends  with  His  world.  Without  an  ade- 
quate teleological  .element  no  theology  or  system  of 
philosophy  can  hope  to  secure  an  acceptance  on  the  part 
of  the  race,  for  on  it  depends  our  whole  conception  of 
God,  the  world,  and  our  own  duty;  it  is  the  foundation 
of  faith,  for  apart  from  this  there  is  nothing  for  our 
faith  to  grasp.  Hitherto  our  teleology  has  been  per- 
sonal, and  has  bent  all  the  plans  of  the  universe  to  the 
end  of  securing  the  personal  salvation  of  an  individual. 
The  world  scheme  of  the  old  theology  was  fantastic 
enough ;  it  gave  us  a  perfect  world,  then  a  fall  into  sin, 
then  a  long  process  of  building  back,  and  then  the  end 
of  the  world  order  at  the  point  of  beginning.  Thus  it 


192        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

made  God  work  in  a  circle  and  accomplish  absolutely 
nothing  except  the  trouble  of  laboring  millions  of  years 
to  attain  what  was  originally  existent — a  perfect  world. 
Certainly  there  were  the  values  of"  the  struggle  itself 
for  the  sons  of  men,  but  so  far  as  a  real  world  order  was 
concerned  the  plan  reflected  no  undue  credit  upon  the 
purposes  of  God.  And  the  pre-millenarian  variation 
which  made  the  world  start  at  absolute  perfection  and 
end  at  absolute  imperfection  was  worse,  for  it  made 
God  positively  immoral. 

In  all  of  this  the  war  has  come  to  help  us.  If  Berg- 
son's  philosophy  had  been  written  after  the  war,  it 
would  no  doubt  have  been  completed  by  the  addition  of 
a  teleological  element,  thus  eliminating  its  glaring  fault ; 
it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  distinguished  French  thinker 
will  now  round  out  his  system.  Men  now  have  clearer 
ideas  of  God's  purposes  for  His  creation;  we  realize 
that  in  spite  of  the  untold  agony  the  earth  has,  through 
the  war,  taken  a  mighty  stride  forward,  and  it  is  not 
too  much  to  believe  that  God's  aims  have  been  furthered. 
Even  the  war  has  brought  the  world  closer  to  Christ's 
ideal  of  the  Kingdom,  for  His  doctrine  of  human  broth- 
erhood has  at  last  been  accepted  as  the  platform  upon 
which  all  nations  must  henceforth  stand — for  that  is 
the  real  meaning  of  the  present  passion  for  Democ- 
racy. 

Along  this  line  the  Church  must  reform  her  thinking. 
We  must  have  a  teleology  that  is  social,  that  does  full 
credit  to  the  character  of  God,  and  that  looks  forward 
infinitely.  This  teleology  must  embody  a  program  of 


RECONSTRUCTION  IN  RELIGION        193 

human  betterment,  one  which  shall  take  in  the  interests 
of  humanity  on  a,  grander  scale  than  any  program  of 
which,  the  Church  has  ever  dreamed  before.  And  its 
central  element  must  be  a  practical  application  of  the 
doctrine  of  Democracy  interpreted  as  a  part  of  the  very 
character  of  God. 

This  will  involve  an  adjustment  on  the  part  of  some 
denominations  in  regard  to  their  own  polity ;  it  will  not 
be  possible  for  a  Church  to  inject  into  society  a  demo- 
cratic principle  while  its  own  spirit  remains  monarchi- 
cal. The  time  loudly  calls  for  the  reduction  of  all  epis- 
copal authority,  the  recognition  of  the  principle  that 
the  Church  is  the  laity,  and  that  any  superior  clergy 
holds  only  as  the  servant  of  the  people.  Those  invested 
with  episcopal  authority  may  oppose  such  an  interpre- 
tation, yet  it  must  be  made  if  ecclesiastical  organization 
is  to  harmonize  with  the  tasks  and  spirit  of  the  times. 
Recently  a  Methodist  bishop  attempted  to  have  the 
Church  defined  as  being  composed  of  the  bishops,  the 
General  Conference,  and  the  preachers — the  bishops 
being  mentioned  first  and  the  laity  not  at  all.  The  en- 
suing struggle  between  the  people  and  the  episcopacy 
in  American  Methodism  is  about  to  be  won  by  the  peo- 
ple; at  any  rate  they  have  won  all  of  the  skirmishes 
thus  far.  And  so  it  should  be  in  all  of  those  denomi- 
nations which  do  not  afford  a  clear  and  unobstructed 
channel  for  the  projection  of  democratic  principles. 

The  task  of  democratization  will  be  for  the  Church 
a  peculiarly  difficult  one;  and  yet  its  accomplishment 
is  imperatively  demanded  to  avoid  an  antagonism  of  the 


194        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

spirit  in  the  Church  with  the  spirit  of  the  age,  an  an- 
tagonism which  is  already  felt  and  which  will  be  fatal 
to  the  influence  of  religious  organizations  if  accentuated. 
Ecclesiasticism  has  never  been  democratic ;  on  the  con- 
trary it  has  openly  advocated  and  gloried  in  autocracy. 
The  people  themselves  have  never  obtained  any  recog- 
nition in  the  councils  of  the  Church  except  over  the  op- 
position of  episcopal  interests.  Ecclesiasticism  seems 
to  have  an  instinctive  distrust  of  the  people,  and  has 
always  sought  to  hedge  them  about  with  safeguards  and 
barriers ;  it  has  created  an  Index  to  determine  the  chan 
nels  through  which  truth  shall  reach  them,  it  has  expur- 
gated and  suppressed  news  and  reports  of  Church  af- 
fairs in  religious  journals,  and  in  a  multitude  of  ways 
it  has  always  proceeded  upon  the  assumption  that  a  su- 
perior clergy  must  be  extremely  careful  in  allowing 
freedom  of  investigation  and  information  to  the  people. 
Even  to-day  there  is  scarcely  a  Church  periodical  on 
earth  which  has  the  courage  to  give  to  the  people  all 
the  facts  concerning  the  movements  in  the  life  of  the 
Church,  and  allow  them  to  form  their  opinions  in  the 
light  of  these  facts. 

In  a  recent  conversation,  an  editor  of  official  and 
public  documents  for  a  certain  denomination  earnestly 
contended  that  it  was  a  part  of  his  duty. to  expurgate 
speeches  which  had  been  delivered,  when  it  appeared 
to  him  that  "the  speaker  had  not  represented  himself  or 
when  he  had  made  remarks  for  which  he  might  after- 
wards be  sorry."  The  fundamental  principle  of  the 
journalist,  to  tell  the  exact  truth  without  bias  and  allow 


RECONSTRUCTION  IN  RELIGION        195 

the  people  to  reach  their  own  conclusions,  has  not  jet 
reached  the  Church.  Therefore  it  has  not  yet  grasped 
the  first  element  in  democracy,  which  is  confidence  in 
the  people. 

On  one  occasion  I  wrote  an  editorial  in  which  I  de- 
nounced the  anarchy  and  the  fanaticism  of  the  Russian 
Bolsheviks  and  declared  that  the  Church  must  oppose 
the  Red  Terror.  The  article  was  prefaced  by  a  state- 
ment to  the  effect  that  the  Church  was  not  primarily  in- 
terested in  forms  of  government,  that  she  believed  in 
the  people,  and  that  if  it  developed  that  the  Russian 
people  sincerely  desired  a  Soviet  government  we  would 
be  content.  This  statement  aroused  hot  resentment  on 
the  part  of  certain  Churchmen;  although  this  is  the 
attitude  of  the  Peace  Conference,  the  Allied  govern- 
ments, and  the  government  of  the  United  States,  these 
Churchmen  declared  that  any  theory  which  would  allow 
a  Soviet  government  in  Russia,  even  if  the  people 
wanted  it,  was  subversive. 

A  few  years  ago  a  large  number  of  prominent  and 
representative  laymen  in  a  certain  denomination 
launched  a  movement  for  a  greater  degree  of  democracy 
in  their  Church  and  for  a  reduction  of  episcopal  power. 
Their  aims  were  set  forth  in  a  pamphlet,  bearing  the 
names  of  all  the  sponsors  of  the  movement,  which  was 
rather  widely  circulated.  The  result  was  a  strong  pro- 
test upon  the  part  of  many  ecclesiastical  leaders,  and 
the  movement  met  the  almost  unanimous  opposition  of 
the  Church  press.  And  the  basis  of  much  of  the  denun- 
ciation heaped  upon  the  movement,  and  the  laymen  who 


196        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

were  urging  it,  was  not  the  lack  of  merit  in  the  cause 
itself,  but  the  fact  that  the  men  had  published  and 
distributed  a  pamphlet! 

These  are  indications  of  the  fact  that  there  is  an  in- 
herent tendency  somewhere  in  the  Church  to  distrust 
the  people.  It  is  a  survival  of  autocracy  and  partakes 
of  the  very  essence  of  Prussianism.  In  such  a  day  as 
this  it  is  imperatively  demanded  that  the  people  be 
taken  into  the  confidence  of  the  Church,  that  all  the  facts* 
be  placed  before  them  and  all  the  power  be  reposed  in 
them.  Otherwise  it  will  be  impossible  to  avoid  a  con- 
flict between  the  Church  and  the  spirit  abroad  in  the 
world.  Having  repudiated  autocracy  in  government, 
men  will  not  longer  tolerate  autocracy  in  their  religion. 

Our  religious  organizations  are  now  under  the  neces- 
sity of  providing  an  expressional  agency  through  which 
religion  can  be  interpreted  into  service,  and  the  very 
first  step  should  be  a  program  of  religious  education 
which  will  reach  the  last  member  of  the  last  congrega- 
tion. Religious  people  have  never  been  able  to  pro- 
foundly influence  society  because  most  of  them  have 
been  wholly  untrained.  Their  ideas  of  the  Bible  will 
not  stand  the  tests  of  intelligence,  and  as  long  as  they 
hold  such  ideas,  they  will  be  open  to  the  attacks  of 
rationalism;  and  many  of  them  will  continue  to  throw 
over  their  faith  when  they  at  last  discover  that  their 
old  notions  cannot  be  defended.  Shall  the  Church  con- 
tinue to  allow  her  people  to  confuse  such  notions  with 
fundamentals  ?  Shall  she  continue  to  oppose  giving  to 
her  people  those  modern  interpretations  which  her  lead- 


RECONSTRUCTION  IN  RELIGION          197 

ers  know  to  be  true?  It  must  not  be!  We  need 
above  everything  else  in  the  Church  a  clear  and  frank 
recognition  of  the  historical  approach  to  the  Bible,  and 
an  educational  scheme  which  will  give  the  method  and 
spirit  to  all  the  people. 

Along  with  this  there  should  go  a  plan  of  social  effort 
which  will  include  an  answer  to  two  questions:  What 
is  a  Christian?  and  What  must  a  Christian  do  to  be 
saved  ?  Neither  of  these  questions  can  be  answered  by 
the  American  Church  to-day,  even  though  there  be  de- 
tached spirits  who  fully  understand  their  implications. 
At  the  present  time  religious  standards  have  been  so 
lowered  that  there  is  very  little  difference  between  a 
"Churchman"  and  a  "sinner."  Most  of  our  Churches 
make  few  distinctions ;  I  have  known  preachers  to  move 
heaven  and  earth  to  obtain  or  keep  for  their  member- 
ship persons  known  to  be  immoral,  and  that  without 
any  thought  of  their  reformation.  I  have  known 
preachers  to  support  in  a  political  campaign  a  candidate 
backed  by  the  saloon  element  because,  forsooth,  he  be- 
longed to  their  denomination,  when  the  opposing  can- 
didate was  being  fought  by  all  immoral  agencies  and 
enjoyed  a  national  reputation  for  integrity  and  law 
enforcement  in  public  office.  In  a  world  with  such  a 
keen  moral  consciousness  as  that  which  now  prevails, 
the  Church  will  display  a  great  unwisdom  if  she  does 
not  look  to  her  standards  and  make  it  impossible  to 
truthfully  say  that  there  is  no  difference  between  those 
inside  and  those  outside  the  fold.  There  should  be  a 
revival  of  preaching  from  the  text,  "What  do  ye  more 


198        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

than  they  ?"  We  are  about  to  lose  the  value  of  a  human 
soul,  and  it  were  better  to  lose  any  other  value  than 
that.  It  can  be  recovered  through  a  social  gospel,  one 
that  rests  human  values  not  only  upon  the  eternity  of 
the  individual  spirit  but  also  upon  the  strategic  import- 
ance of  the  individual  in  the  social  scheme  of  God. 

Give  us  also  a  new  missionary  message  and  under- 
standing. !N~ow  we  know  as  never  before  that  men  are 
mutually  dependent,  that  our  duties  are  not  bounded  by 
racial  or  national  lines,  that  the  world  is  a  small  place 
inhabited  by  those  who  are  brothers.  In  the  missionary 
program  of  to-morrow  there  must  not  be  the  idea  of 
saving  a  soul  in  heaven  which  might  otherwise  be  lost 
in  hell;  neither  must  it  be  inspired  by  motives  of  de- 
nominational aggrandizement.  Let  it  be  lifted  into  the 
realm  of  world  reconstruction  and  be  made  the  leading 
element  in  the  civilizing  of  the  earth.  Include  in  the 
missionary  enterprise  all  social  movements  and  ideas, 
and  in  pursuit  of  this  the  Church  will  have  a  policy 
worthy  of  these  days. 

The  truth  is  that  nothing  except  missionary  activity 
can  save  the  world  in  the  present  crisis.  The  social  or- 
der in  a  great  part  of  the  world  has  been  wrecked  and 
must  now  be  rebuilt.  Upon  the  nature  of  the  recon- 
struction depends  the  weal  or  the  woe  of  the  Church  for 
many  centuries  to  come.  If  the  world  attempts  to  leave 
God  out  of  the  new  order  it  will  mean  what  it  meant 
during  the  French  Revolution — a  reign  of  terror  and 
anarchy.  And  in  the  present  situation — with  godless 
Bolshevism  rampant  in  all  lands,  with  a  citizenship  con- 


RECONSTRUCTION  IN  RELIGION          199 

fused  and  sad  at  heart,  with  wide-spread  destruction 
and  poverty,  with  a  constant  trend  on  the  part  of  the 
people  away  from  Roman  Catholicism  toward  rational- 
ism— there  is  very  great  danger  that  such  an  attempt 
will  be  made.  Surely  it  will  he  made  unless  the  Protes- 
tant Church  of  America  has  the  courage  to  project 
everywhere  the  sanest  and  the  most  far-reaching  mis- 
sionary program  the  world  ever  knew. 

The  world  is  intoxicated  with  democracy.  It  is  to  be 
tried  everywhere,  and  the  people  seem  to  believe  that 
when  democracy  is  applied  to  all  the  evils  and  ills  of 
society  the  Millennium  will  be  ushered  in.  This  is,  to 
be  sure,  a  step  in  the  right  direction,  yet  democracy 
is  the  most  dangerous  experiment  which  has  ever  been 
tried.  Theoretical  ideas  of  democracy  will  never  save 
a  people  or  make  the  world  safe  and  civilized.  Mexico 
has  a  democracy,  yet  she  menaces  the  peace  of  the  world. 
Russia  has  a  democracy  of  a  kind,  yet  she  wanders  in 
anarchy  and  confusion.  China  is  a  democracy,  yet  she 
is  unnumbered  among  civilized  nations.  Why  are  these 
lands  not  safe?  It  is  because  the  citizenship  is  not  of 
such  a  quality  that  democracy  can  rest  upon  it.  Three- 
fourths  of  the  people  in  Mexico  could  not  read  the 
Bible  even  if  they  had  it  to  read.  Seventy-five  per  cent, 
of  the  Russians  are  ignorant.  Nine-tenths  of  the  Chi- 
nese are  illiterate.  It  is  rather  startling  to  reflect  that 
in  China  there  are  three  times  as  many  people  who 
cannot  read  a  line  a,s  there  are  people  of  all  kinds  in 
the  United  States.  And  no  democracy  can  stand  that 
rests  upon  a  citizenship  which  is  illiterate.  Now  the 


200         SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

whole  world  is  to  try  democracy  as  a  magic  something 
which  can  cure  its  ills  and  evils.  Yet  more  than  half 
of  the  people  in  the  world  are  unable  to  read  and  write 
a  word  of  any  language.  In  this  situation  the  world 
which  trusts  simply  to  democracy  is  riding  upon  the 
shoals. 

When  we  consider  this  state  of  affairs  the  duty  of  the 
Church  appears  perfectly  plain.  That  duty  is  to  make 
sure  that  Christian  culture  and  enlightenment  prevail 
everywhere.  It  is  ours  to  place  under  the  democratic 
forms  and  conceptions  of  the  world  a  citizenship  which 
is  educated,  a  people  whose  radical  tempers  are  stabil- 
ized by  Christian  morality  and  wisdom.  Unless  this  is 
done  there  will  be  universal  Bolshevism,  constant  con- 
fusion, more  wars,  and  the  eternal  threat  of  anarchy. 

We  may  trust  the  people  to  organize  their  govern- 
ments when  the  people  know  what  Christian  culture 
means.  We  will  be  free  from  the  menace  of  the  Bol- 
shevik when  individual  people  are  regenerated  and 
educated.  But  so  long  as  they  languish  in  the  densest 
sort  of  ignorance  no  stable  government  can  be  erected 
upon  them,  and  there  can  be  no  peace  for  the  world. 
Let  us  have  democracy,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  future 
the  democracies  must  be  safe  for  the  world.  And  they 
will  be  safe  only  when  they  are  Christian. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  CHALLENGE  OF  THE  WAB  TO  THE  CHURCH 

When  the  war  broke  out  it  brought  immediate  con- 
fusion to  the  Church.  War  always  brings  such  con- 
fusion, because  it  is  the  negation  of  the  Christian  mes- 
sage of  good-will  and  loving  fellowship.  On  this  the 
Church  has  stood  for  twenty  centuries  and  the  world 
has  accepted  the  doctrine  as  an  ideal;  so  universally 
had  this  ideal  come  to  be  acknowledged  that  many  be- 
lieved Christianity  had  been  able  to  weave  its  spirit 
into  the  social  order  so  thoroughly  that  wars  had  become 
impossible.  Then  the  unprecedented  catastrophe  came, 
and  all  the  preaching  and  influence  of  two  thousand 
years  was  negatived  in  a  day.  It  seemed  as  if  the  earth 
had  officially  forsaken  the  Christian  platform. 

It  is  said  that  Mr.  H.  G.  Wells,  at  the  outbreak  of 
hostilities,  spent  some  time  in  the  graveyard  of  a 
country  church,  reflecting  after  this  fashion :  "Here  is 
the  most  influential  and  respected  of  all  human  institu- 
tions, and  it  stands  upon  a  platform  of  brotherhood.  It 
operates  throughout  the  civilized  world,  and  no  com- 
munity is  apart  from  its  spirit  and  message.  Why  has 
there  not  emanated  from  this  institution  a  power  which 

201 


202         SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

would  have  made  this  war  impossible?"  And  because 
he  could  not  answer  the  question  Mr.  Wells  conjured 
up  a  fantastic  religion  of  his  own. 

Out  of  the  general  confusion  arose  the  cry  which  we 
have  heard  so  oftentimes,  "Christianity  has  failed." 
The  rationalist  press  took  it  up  and  made  it  into  a  far- 
flung  propaganda.  Christian  apologists  did  not  reply, 
because  in  the  general  confusion  there  were  no  clear 
visioned  prophets  to  speak.  To  say  that  it  was  a 
righteous  war  was  to  make  no  reply  at  all,  for  this 
was  conceded  on  all  hands;  it  was  conceded  on  both 
sides,  for  the  Christian  Church  was  as  influential  in 
the  Teutonic  countries  as  in  those  lands  mobilized  under 
the  Allied  banners.  Two  sets  of  Christians  sent  pray- 
ers to  the  same  God  for  exactly  opposite  favors,  invok- 
ing His  support  for  irreconcilable  principles.  The  crux 
of  the  situation  did  not  concern  the  justice  or  the  in- 
justice of  the  issues  involved;  it  was  the  stark  fact 
that  in  all  the  centuries  of  Christian  history  our  religion 
had  not  persuaded  the  nations  that  brotherhood  was  a 
practical  principle  in  international  affairs,  and  that 
there  was  a  better  way  of  adjusting  disputes  than  that 
of  resorting  to  force,  bloodshed,  and  barbarism.  The 
Church  was  powerless  against  such  a  charge  of  failure 
as  this,  for  it  bore  its  truthfulness  on  its  very  face. 

As  the  war  progressed  the  confusion  deepened,  and 
there  grew  up  in  Europe  a  positive  antagonism  to  the 
Church.  Tor  this  there  were  various  reasons.  The 
Church  really  had  no  message  for  the  times,  and  this 
was  a  source  of  disappointment  even  to  Christian  people. 


THE  CHALLENGE  TO  THE  CHURCH  203 

The  war  came  so  suddenly  and  so  unexpectedly  that  the 
religious  forces  of  Europe  had  no  time  for  preparation, 
and  when  suddenly  confronted  with  the  crisis  they  were 
powerless  to  meet  it  with  a  dynamic  pronouncement  and 
program.  The  Church  continued  to  preach  the  same  old 
platitudes,  and  the  people  who  flocked  to  the  shrine 
when  the  carnage  began  failed  to  find  the  hope,  the 
solace,  the  vision  which  they  desired.  They  found 
only  sermons  urging  patriotism,  demanding  enlisting, 
and  justifying  the  nation's  course,  the  very  same  things 
they  were  hearing  everywhere  else.  And  so  the  in- 
creased congregations  so  apparent  at  the  beginning  soon 
diminished. 

Then  the  doctrine  of  prayer  began  to  be  discounted. 
We  had  taught  a  theory  of  prayer  which  caused  people 
to  believe  that  there  was  a  special  providence  for  those 
who  prayed  and  for  those  whose  friends  prayed  for  them, 
that  its  benefits  were  physical  and  objective,  that  it  could 
actually  change  the  mind  and  purposes  of  God.  Never 
has  there  been  so  much  praying  as  during  the  opening 
months  of  the  war.  But  the  course  of  events  soon  ex- 
ploded that  theory  of  prayer.  The  praying  soldier  fell 
by  the  side  of  the  one  who  knew  no  God  to  whom  he 
could  pray,  and  the  sons  and  loved  ones  of  millions 
of  devout  people  were  laid  to  rest  in  Flanders  Field 
with  the  friends  of  atheists,  infidels,  and  sinners.  So 
they  began  to  doubt  the  efficacy  of  prayer,  which  meant 
that  they  doubted  everything  they  had  been  taught  about 
God.  Their  trouble,  to  be  sure,  was  with  a  mistaken 


204         SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

notion  of  prayer,  but  it  was  the  only  notion  the  masses 
had  ever  been  taught. 

Then  there  came  about  the  wide-spread  reign  of  wick- 
edness, a  social  condition  most  terrible  and  one  which 
even  to-day  threatens  the  welfare  of  society  and  the 
very  future  of  the  race.  In  regard  to  this  situation  the 
Church  did  nothing.  There  was  no  attempt  to  correct 
the  evil,  no  effort  to  save  the  people.  She  stood  per- 
fectly helpless  in  the  face  of  such  a  condition  of  im- 
morality as  Europe  had  never  known  before,  and  ap- 
peared so  out  of  touch  with  life  that  she  did  not  even 
realize  into  what  a  state  the  world  was  drifting.  By 
this  apathy,  this  inaction,  this  lack  of  message  and  ma- 
chinery for  such  a  crisis,  she  contributed  still  further 
to  her  own  undoing  and  the  general  dissatisfaction. 

Again,  the  actions  and  attitudes  of  the  Church  towards 
the  war  were  not  calculated  to  add  to  her  influence, 
especially  in  England.  While  all  other  classes  of  the 
population  were  taken  into  the  army,  the  young  clergy 
were  exempted  from  service ;  and  the  exemption  was  in- 
sisted upon  by  the  leaders  until  an  antagonistic  public 
sentiment  had  crystallized,  and  then  it  was  too  late  to 
undo  the  evil.  The  hierarchy  of  the  Anglican  Church 
gave  support  to  the  liquor  traffic,  and  encouraged  im- 
morality by  advising  soldiers  to  marry,  for  the  sake  of 
the  race,  before  departing  for  the  fronts.  They  angered 
the  military  chiefs  by  an  alleged  interference  with  train- 
ing and  discipline  through  opposition  to  athletic  games 
on  Sunday  in  the  camps,  and  they  infuriated  the  gen- 
eral populace  by  their  stern  objections  to  a  policy  of 


THE  CHALLENGE  TO  THE  CHURCH  205 

reprisals  against  German  cities  when  the  enemy  mur- 
dered helpless  women  and  children  by  air  raids  on  un- 
defended towns. 

At  the  same  time  there  grew  up  the  opinion  that  the 
head  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  which  is  the  con- 
trolling religious  force  in  many  of  the  warring  coun- 
tries, was  pro-German  and  desired  the  defeat  of  the 
allied  cause.  There  were  many  foundations  for  this 
prevalent  belief.  The  Roman  Catholics  in  Ireland, 
openly  led  by  the  leaders  of  the  Church,  connived  with 
the  enemy,  staged  a  revolution  in  the  most  serious  mo- 
ment of  the  war,  and  absolutely  refused  to  allow  con- 
scription. In  Canada  and  in  other  dominions  of  the 
British  Empire  the  opposition  of  the  Catholic  element 
to  the  war  and  conscription  was  so  marked  that  rebel- 
lions were  feared.  The  Pope  refused  to  denounce  the 
invasion  of  Belgium  specifically  and  dealt  only  in  plati- 
tudes relative  to  the  unspeakable  outrages  of  Germany, 
even  when  perpetrated  on  Catholic  peoples;  his  peace 
effort  embodied  a  proposal  entirely  satisfactory  to  the 
Central  Powers,  but  which  none  of  the  Allies  could 
accept.  It  was  known  that  the  Pope  cherished  a  deep 
hatred  against  Italy  and  France  and  expected  no  favors 
from  England ;  on  the  other  hand  he  was  closely  linked 
to  the  Hapsburgs  of  Austria,  some  of  the  German  states 
were  officially  Catholic,  and  through  the  Centrum  they 
exercised  a  practical  balance  of  power  in  the  Empire. 
Therefore,  if  he  hoped  through  the  war  to  obtain  a  rec- 
ognition of  temporal  authority,  it  was  evident  that  all 
of  his  interests  lay  with  the  Central  allies.  And  when 


206        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

it  was  discovered  that  the  virtual  head  of  the  enemy 
spy  system  in  Italy  was  in  the  Vatican,  an  ex-officer  in 
the  German  army  whom  the  Pope  had  elevated  and  re- 
tained over  Italian  protests,  the  suspicion  deepened  into 
a  conviction. 

In  this  situation  the  lot  of  the  Church  was  unenvi 
able.  Owing  to  her  divisions  it  was  impossible  for  her 
resources  to  be  mobilized  and  moved  against  the  prob* 
lems  created  by  the  war  even  if  there  had  been  any 
clear  recognition  of  the  character  of  such  problems. 
Aside  from  furnishing  chaplains,  who  were  taken  out 
of  her  hands  the  moment  they  entered  the  army,  there 
was  little  for  the  Church  to  do  in  a  cooperative  way. 
There  was  no  distinctive  responsibility  which  the  gov- 
ernment could  entrust  to  her ;  the  work  which  the  Church 
would  otherwise  have  been  expected  to  do  was  given  to 
welfare  agencies,  because  the  Church  proper  had  wasted 
her  energies  and  rendered  herself  impotent  by  internal 
dissensions.  Even  in  America  it  was  necessary  for  the 
government  to  actually  go  to  the  extreme  of  forbidding 
the  doing  of  distinctive  work  in  the  camps  by  the 
Church. 

These  are  the  counts  against  the  Church,  all  weighty 
and  all  reflecting  upon  her  a  degree  of  blame.  Let  us 
frankly  recognize  this.  There  is,  however,  another  side 
to  the  case.  Accepting  fully  all  the  condemnation 
which  can  justly  be  assigned  to  her,  the  Protestant 
Church,  especially  in  America,  where  many  of  the  stric- 
tures against  the  European  Church  do  not  apply,  has  a 
right  to  be  heard  in  reply.  Her  preachers  have  nearly 


THE  CHALLENGE  TO  THE  CHURCH  207 

all  been  patriotic  and  self-sacrificing  in  their  devotion 
to  the  national  cause,  and  they  have  perhaps  done  more 
than  any  other  class  to  consolidate  the  people  with  a 
deep  conviction  of  the  justice  of  the  allied  cause.  She 
has  stripped  herself  of  preachers  in  supplying  men  for 
chaplains  and  workers  in  the  various  welfare  organizar 
tions,  furnishing  to  such  organizations  more  workers 
perhaps  than  any  four  or  five  other  trades  or  professions 
combined.  Behind  them  all  stands  the  spirit  which  is 
the  product  of  the  Church,  for  she  has  given  to  the  world 
the  atmosphere  which  makes  welfare  work  possible. 
Even  the  liberality  of  the  nations,  through  which  they 
have  obtained  their  millions,  comes  from  the  Church; 
if  it  is  not  a  sound  argument  to  point  out  the  fact  that 
most  of  this  wealth  has  come  from  religious  people,  it 
remains  true  that  her  long  teaching  and  training  in  the 
matter  of  stewardship  and  generosity  has  been  the  lead- 
ing element  in  the  large  giving  on  the  part  of  the 
public. 

Nor  is  that  all.  While  the  fundamental  principles  of 
Christianity  may  have  been  somewhat  negatived  by  the 
war,  these  same  principles  are  still  the  most  influential 
factors  in  the  war.  Whence  came  the  spirit  of  horror 
which  swept  the  world  when  the  war  broke  out,  the  re- 
volt against  cruelty  and  outrageous  conduct  even  in 
the  strain  of  the  conflict,  the  resentment  of  the  world 
against  a  nation  which  broke  its  plighted  word  ?  These 
things  are  reflections  of  the  conceptions  of  fairness,  love, 
and  brotherhood,  which  religion  has  spread  abroad  in 
the  lands.  Why  is  democracy  the  slogan  of  the  world  ? 


208        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

Why  do  nations  strive  to  show  that  they  were  not  to 
blame,  that  they  have  no  motives  of  conquest,  that  their 
aims  are  altruistic  ?  Why  do  they  insist  that  the  rights 
of  small  and  helpless  nationalities  shall  be  conserved? 
These  are  new  things  under  the  sun,  and  they  emanate 
from  the  Christian  attitude  which  the  Church  has  pro- 
jected into  society.  For  democracy  is  nothing  more 
than  a  political  application  of  the  doctrine  of  the  broth- 
erhood of  man.  This  is  the  proper  field  for  the  opera- 
tions of  the  Church,  and  here  her  failure  has  been  only 
relative. 

But  the  Church  obtains  small  credit  for  her  work 
when  it  reaches  the  point  where  it  is  recognized  as  so 
necessary  that  the  governments  must  take  it  over.  This 
is  notably  true  in  the  great  systems  of  public  hospitals 
and  public  schools;  few  people  think  of  giving  the  re- 
ligious organizations  of  the  world  credit  for  these  things 
which  were  begun  by  them.  So  it  is  perfectly  natural 
that  the  world  should  overlook  the  values  which  she  has 
projected  into  the  seething  world  and  center  criticisms 
against  her  blunders  and  the  helplessness  connected  with 
the  uncompleted  parts  of  her  program.  The  failures,  so 
called,  of  the  Church  are  simply  the  fields  which  lie 
beyond. 

What  lies  before  the  Church  now,  with  the  coming 
of  peace?  Her  entire  program  lies  before  her,  broad- 
ened and  magnified  a  hundred  fold  by  the  greatness  of 
the  present  hour.  Evangelistic  power,  educational 
genius,  missionary  vision — never  was  there  such  a  de- 
mand for  them.  The  challenge  to  the  Church  to-day 


THE  CHALLENGE  TO  THE  CHURCH  209 

is  mightier  than  it  has  ever  been  at  any  other  moment 
of  the  world's  history.  When  Christ  gave  to  His  friends 
the  great  commission  to  preach  the  gospel  to  every  crea- 
ture, the  specific  responsibility  upon  them  was  not  great- 
er than  the  specific  responsibility  now  upon  the  Church. 
It  not  only  comes  out  of  the  world's  need,  but  it  con- 
cerns her  own  life  and  self-preservation.  And  it  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  if  she  fails  to  respond  on  a  scale 
commensurate  with  the  needs  and  visions  of  such  a  time 
as  this  the  days  of  her  influence  and  her  life  are  num- 
bered. In  a  world  of  human  need — a  need  for  the  very 
things  which  the  Church  has  always  professed  to  be  able 
to  give — she  stands,  criticized,  doubted,  ridiculed,  and 
condemned.  The  eyes  of  the  earth  are  upon  her  in  anx- 
iety, in  hope,  in  suspicion — but  hardly  in  expectancy. 
If  the  Church  is  to  save  herself  and  the  world,  the  effort 
she  must  make  will  go  far  beyond  the  dreams  of  the 
men  of  a  past  generation. 

We  can  obtain  an  idea  of  the  task  before  the  Church 
by  visualizing  the  world  situation,  for  the  task  must  be 
a  world  task  in  such  a  day  as  this  and  it  must  relate 
itself  to  all  the  needs  of  all  the  people  of  all  the  nations. 
In  a  world  survey,  what  do  we  find  ?  The  whole  earth 
in  ruin  unspeakable.  Under  little  white  crosses  lie  mil- 
lions, representing  the  best  blood  and  brain  of  the 
world.  Millions  of  homes  are  bereaved,  children  are  or- 
phaned and  left  without  hope  in  the  world,  refugees 
wander  in  droves  about  the  face  of  the  earth  without 
places  to  lay  their  heads,  unnumbered  hearts  are  torn 
and  bleeding  with  unspeakable  grief. 


210        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

The  fairest  fields  of  France  and  Belgium  are  devas- 
tated and  ruined.  Towns,  cities,  and  villages  are  black- 
ened piles  of  shapeless  debris,  with  rank  weeds  where 
happy  children  used  to  play  and  the  silence  of  death 
where  industry  used  to  hum.  Homes,  mills,  mines,  fac- 
tories, farms,  stores — all  these  are  gone,  and  their  places 
have  been  taken  by  ruin,  death,  and  shallow  graves. 
Churches  are  but  shattered  piles  of  stone,  art  treasures 
of  priceless  value  have  been  swept  into  nothingness,  col- 
leges are  closed  or  wrecked,  and  all  the  processes  of  spir- 
itual culture  have  been  stopped. 

Nations  have  starved  themselves  in  the  struggle.  Haw 
materials  have  been  shot  away  and  wasted,  while  debts 
have  accumulated  which  may  not  be  paid  in  a  thousand 
years.  Immorality  and  vice  hold  sway  in  all  the  towns 
and  cities  of  Europe  and  the  people  have  all  but  for- 
saken and  lost  their  moral  consciousness.  And  the  souls 
of  men,  women,  and  little  children  are  charged  with 
hatred  and  venom.  It  were  impossible  to  think  ade- 
quately upon  the  moral,  spiritual,  and  physical  wreck- 
age which  the  war  has  spilled  upon  a  suffering  world. 

The  world  must  be  rebuilt,  and  upon  a  surer  founda- 
tion. There  is  no  comfort  for  the  sorrowing,  no  hope 
of  future  peace,  if  Christianity  is  left  out  of  the  re- 
building process.  We  must  reconstruct  upon  a  Christian 
basis.  Into  the  process  we  must  inject  the  spirit  of 
Christ,  and  the  values  of  a  Protestant  faith  must  be 
woven  into  the  very  warp  and  woof  of  the  new  social 
order.  There  are  orphanages,  schools,  hospitals,  benev- 
olent movements,  Churches  needed  in  every  land  of 


THE  CHALLENGE  TO  THE  CHURCH 

Europe,  and  only  American  Protestantism  can  provide 
and  maintain  them  so  that  their  influence  will  become 
a  vital  part  of  society. 

With  all  due  respect  to  the  Eoman  Catholic  Church, 
we  know  it  to  be  inadequate  for  the  task,  and  yet  this 
faith  controls  many  of  the  stricken  lands.  It  stands 
upon  a  platform  of  ignorance,  suppression,  and  extor- 
tion. It  is  avowedly  autocratic  in  its  very  nature  and 
the  sworn  foe  of  democracy.  Its  hierarchy  believes  in 
and  thrives  under  such  intrigues  and  diplomatic  chi- 
canery as  made  this  war  possible  and  unavoidable.  By 
its  disgraceful  action  in  the  war  it  has  lost  its  grip 
upon  the  people  to  such  an  extent  that  its  hierarchy  is 
now  respected  in  no  nation  of  the  earth.  If  European 
society  is  left  with  no  religious  influence  save  that  which 
this  Church  supplies,  it  will  be  rebuilt  without  any  rec- 
ognition of  God;  France  tried  such  a  rebuilding  once 
and  the  world  obtained  a  lesson  concerning  the  danger 
of  a  Godless  social  order.  It  must  not  be  again. 

In  France,  Belgium,  and  Italy  the  Protestant  faith 
now  has  the  chance  to  measure  steel  with  Roman  Ca- 
tholicism with  all  the  advantages  except  actual  occupa- 
tion in  its  favor.  That  these  lands  are  breaking  away 
from  the  Roman  Church  is  well  known.  In  Italy  it  is 
impossible  to  bear  the  body  of  a  dead  Pope  through  the 
streets  of  the  eternal  city  to  its  final  resting  place  lest 
the  people  fling  it  into  the  Tiber,  and  in  France  the  influ- 
ence of  rationalism  and  freemasonry,  practically  unaid- 
ed by  Protestantism,  was  able  to  make  the  government 
throw  off  the  trammels  of  the  establishment.  Belgium, 


SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

always  loyal  to  the  Church,  deeply  resents  the  compla- 
cency with  which  the  Pope  viewed  her  destruction. 
These  people  all  remember  that  the  Pope  induced  Eng- 
land to  grant  to  Germany  a  respite  from  air  raids  on 
a  holy  day  and  then  allowed  Germany  to  use  her  own  air 
fleet,  freed  from  the  necessity  of  protecting  the  horder 
for  the  day,  to  destroy  a  Church  in  Paris  and  kill  the 
worshipers  and  to  bomb  London  on  that  same  Sunday 
night.  Protestantism  never  had  such  an  opportunity  to 
take  Europe  for  her  own  as  that  which  is  to-day  pre- 
sented to  her.  For  while  Europe  turns  against  Catholi- 
cism she  turns  towards  America ;  she  has  seen  the  unsel- 
fish labors  of  the  welfare  agencies  in  the  allied  armies 
and  has  come  to  believe  that  American  Christianity 
means  altruistic  and  loving  service.  In  a  certain  place 
an  American  soldier  was  killed  and  his  comrades  desired 
to  bury  him  in  the  local  cemetery,  but  the  request  was  re- 
fused by  the  priest  on  the  ground  that  the  man  was  a 
Protestant  and  would  defile  consecrated  ground.  He  was 
accordingly  buried  just  outside  the  wall  of  the  cemetery, 
and  the  humble  peasants  of  France  gathered  to  witness 
the  ceremony.  And  in  the  darkness  of  the  following 
night  these  peasants  returned,  tore  down  the  wall  of  the 
church-yard,  and  rebuilt  it  around  the  grave  of  the  sleep- 
ing American  boy.  If  the  simple  peasants  of  France 
think  more  of  a  dead  American  than  of  the  traditions 
of  their  Church  and  the  dictations  of  their  priests,  may 
we  not  hope  that  America  will  be  able  to  give  them  the 
liberal  gospel  of  the  Protestant  religion? 

One  of  the  greatest  calls  of  the  present  hour  is  that 


THE  CHALLENGE  TO  THE  CHURCH  213 

which  comes  from  the  Slavic  peoples  of  Eussia,  Serbia, 
and  those  nationalities  which  constituted  the  old  Em- 
pire of  Austria.  Greater  in  extent  than  all  the  rest  of 
Europe,  mighty  Eussia  to-day  wanders  in  the  blindness 
of  the  worst  kind  of  anarchy,  harassed  and  oppressed 
by  murderous  and  perjured  Bolshevik  fools,  who  play 
upon  the  helpless  ignorance  of  the  masses  for  the  fur- 
therance of  fanatical  schemes  and  personal  aggrandize- 
ment. To  respond  to  the  call  of  Eussia  means  not  only 
to  save  a  people  and  to  reinstate  a  nation  in  the  ways 
of  orderly  government;  it  will  also  enable  the  Church 
to  take  this  people  for  the  Protestant  faith,  and  to  draw 
out  from  them  a  dynamic  of  spiritual  force  which  will 
do  much  to  establish  the  kingdom  throughout  all  the 
world. 

There  is  a  sense  in  which  we  may  say  that  Eussia 
really  won  the  war  for  us.  Never  for  a  moment  did 
she  falter  in  her  loyalty  to  her  Slavic  kinsmen  in  Serbia, 
it  was  her  mobilization  in  the  beginning  which  occupied 
the  almost  exclusive  attention  of  Germany,  and  by  her 
advance  she  kept  from  the  west  in  the  most  critical  days 
a  great  Teutonic  army.  If  Germany  could  have  thrown 
her  full  strength  in  the  west  the  resistance  of  Liege 
could  not  have  held  her,  Paris  would  have  fallen, 
France  would  have  been  rendered  impotent,  and  the 
Central  Powers  would  doubtless  have  come  off  victori- 
ous. In  a  very  real  sense,  then,  we  may  say  that  Eussia 
saved  the  world  from  all  the  agony  which  would  have 
been  entailed  by  the  triumph  of  Prussianism. 

Let  us  not  forget  that  the  Eussian  people  were  whole- 


SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

hearted  in  their  support  of  the  war.  An  unwilling  gov- 
ernment confessed  to  Germany  that  Russians  could  not 
be  restrained;  the  prospect  of  seeing  Serbia  humiliated 
and  oppressed  aroused  them  to  fury  and  they  were  re- 
solved to  fight.  And  they  fought  heroically  and  well, 
but  under  handicaps  the  like  of  which  a  nation  had  never 
before  been  forced  to  face.  The  Czar  was  a  weakling 
surrounded  by  traitors ;  the  Czarina  was  a  German  by 
birth  and  instincts,  and  in  every  possible  way  she  in- 
trigued with  the  foe  against  her  own  people.  We  read 
of  private  wires  leading  from  the  palace  at  Tsarskoe 
Selo  direct  to  German  headquarters,  over  which  went 
constantly  news  of  troop  movements  and  military  plans ; 
and  to  a  friend  in  Berlin  the  Czarina  wrote,  "Give  my 
best  greetings  to  the  brave  Hindenburg ;  it  is  horrid  to 
be  compelled  to  sustain  an  anti-German  attitude  when 
one  knows  that  our  Fatherland  is  unconquerable,  even 
though  the  Russian  flag  be  bathed  in  blood."  The  will 
of  the  unspeakable  Rasputin  was  law  at  the  court,  and 
Rasputin  was  an  agent  of  the  Hun.  In  the  highest  posts 
of  the  government  sat  men  like  Boris  Sturmer,  the 
Prime  Minister,  Kurloff,  the  Minister  of  the  Interior, 
and  the  notorious  Protopopoff,  all  paid  tools  of  Ger- 
many, and  the  government  deliberately  planned  confu- 
sion in  the  army,  revolution  at  home,  and  victory  for  the 
foe.  So  completely  was  the  situation  given  over  to  Ger- 
many that  she  could  and  did  actually  demand  that  a  suc- 
cessful offensive  be  stopped  and  all  communication  be- 
tween Russia  and  her  allies  be  broken  off.  In  this  sit- 
uation, what  remained  for  a  patriotic  people  but  revolt  ? 


THE  CHALLENGE  TO  THE  CHURCH  215 

They  turned  on  a  traitorous  government,  drove  it  from 
power,  destroyed  the  autocracy,  and  endeavored  to  place 
in  its  stead  a  government  of  the  people. 

To  be  sure  they  found  themselves  at  sea.  The  transi- 
tion from  the  most  absolute  kind  of  autocracy  to  a  free 
government  could  not  be  made  in  a  day,  in  the  midst 
of  a  great  war,  and  by  a  people  wholly  ignorant  of  the 
principles  of  government.  Ground  down  and  oppressed 
as  they  had  been  for  time  out  of  mind,  they  craved  lib- 
erty unrestrained,  and  in  their  ignorance  they  were  ripe 
for  socialistic  schemes  of  the  most  radical  sort.  The 
pendulum  swung  too  far  and  they  found  themselves  in 
the  clutches  of  Bolshevism.  But  the  Bolsheviks  do  not 
represent  Russia.  They  are  Jews,  crazed  and  maddened 
by  untold  persecution,  and  they  are  out  for  blood  and 
vengeance;  Russia  can  never  struggle  to  her  feet  until 
the  heel  of  the  Red  is  lifted  from  her  neck.  But  fools 
cannot  always  rule  such  a  people.  Sooner  or  later  Rus- 
sia, perhaps  reduced  in  territory  and  surely  chastened 
in  spirit  by  her  terrible  excesses,  must  take  her  place 
among  the  nations. 

To-day  Russia  needs  everything  which  a  people  ever 
need.  An  orderly  government  must  be  set  up.  Food 
must  be  given  to  her  millions.  We  must  send  her  im- 
plements and  teach  her  to  use  them  in  the  develop- 
ment of  her  wonderful  resources.  The  people  should  be 
supported  and  guided  back  to  the  ways  of  decency  and 
placed  upon  a  firm  basis  of  democracy.  Above  all,  she 
needs  to  be  educated.  Her  people  are  ignorant,  and 
hence  a  prey  to  all  the  vices  of  which  ignorance  is  the 


216        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

prolific  source.  She  needs  the  Protestant  religion,  and 
without  it  she  will  never  be  wholly  free.  The  only 
religion  Russia  knows  encourages  the  very  ignorance 
which  has  cursed  her  and  imposes  an  ecclesiastical  tyr- 
anny quite  as  severe  as  the  political  autocracy  from 
which  she  has  escaped ;  only  western  Protestantism  will 
establish  the  schools  which  she  needs,  and  in  order  to 
complete  her  salvation  it  will  be  necessary  for  the 
liberal  and  powerful  ideas  of  the  Protestant  faith,  to 
permeate  her  life  and  leaven  her  society.  Perhaps  it  is 
not  the  province  of  the  Church  to  send  food  and  imple- 
ments to  Russia,  but  it  is  surely  her  province  to  send  re- 
ligion and  education,  hospitals  and  benevolent  institu- 
tions. And  nowhere  else  in  all  the  wide  world  is  there 
such  a  crying  need  for  these  as  in  Russia. 

The  very  character  of  these  people  makes  Russia  an 
inviting  mission  field  for  the  Church.  It  is  a  mistake 
to  judge  them  by  the  acts  of  a  Bolshevik.  The  Russian 
is  religious  by  nature,  and  no  person  lives  so  constantly 
under  the  influence  of  spiritual  ideals  and  motives. 
None  has  such  a  clear  realization  of  the  presence  and 
demands  of  God,  none  has  a  higher  appreciation  of 
spiritual  values.  The  very  career  of  Rasputin  is  proof 
of  the  desires  of  the  people  to  touch  spiritual  reality— 
and  not  only  the  poor  and  ignorant ;  because  of  this  in- 
herent instinct  the  mock  monk  was  able  to  seduce  some 
of  the  noblest  people  of  the  nation.  The  genius  of  the 
Russian  is  remarkably  like  that  of  the  old  Hebrew,  who 
saw  God  in  rainbows,  storms,  victories,  adversities,  trees, 
and  mists  upon  a  mountain  top.  From  such  a  people 


THE  CHALLENGE  TO  THE  CHURCH  217 

sprang  our  religion;  from  another  such  will  come  the 
spirit  which  will  fill  it  with  new  meaning  and  power.  ; 

One  who  wanders  about  over  Europe  to-day  will  meet 
hundreds  of  Russian  refugees,  and  he  cannot  fail  to  he 
impressed  with  their  idealism  and  innate  spiritual  cul- 
ture. They  are  the  greatest  linguists  of  the  world,  and 
they  have  a  wonderful  appreciation  and  knowledge  of 
literature  and  music.  There  is  in  London  to-day  a 
refugee  who  has  been  driven  through  five  nations;  her 
jewels,  her  wealth,  her  family,  have  been  lost,  but  she 
still  retains  some  volumes  of  poems  in  beautiful  bindings 
of  hand-tooled  leather.  There  is  another  who  is  deeply 
pained  at  the  sight  of  great  mansions,  because  they  are 
too  large  for  the  families  occupying  them  and  their  very 
presence  brings  up  thoughts  of  the  east  end,  where 
thousands  huddle  together  in  apartments  too  small  for 
comfort.  There  was  another  who  preferred  suicide  to 
the  prospect  of  living  until  the  close  of  tne  war  in  a 
disagreeable  environment,  and  her  philosophy  was  this: 
"To  die  means  physical  suffering  and  does  not  affect  the 
soul,  while  an  oppressed  spirit  means  unhappiness  and 
the  dwarfing  of  personality.  A  Russian  believes  that 
the  soul  is  worth  more  than  the  body.  The  American 
professes  to  believe  that  also,  but  a  Russian  believes  it 
strongly  enough  to  act  upon  it," 

That  these  people  are  superstitious,  socialistic,  and 
ultra-idealistic  is  quite  true,  but  they  need  only  the  guid- 
ance of  a  liberal  and  intelligent  faith,  and  the  stabiliz- 
ing influence  of  a  Church  with  a  social  message.  A 
Protestant  Russia  is  a  large  ambition,  but  on  such  un- 


218        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

dertakings  the  Church  has  always  thrived.  The  con- 
summation is  necessary  to  Russia's  future,  for  if  the 
spiritual  genius  of  this  people  must  continue  to  be  dom- 
inated by  either  Greek  or  Roman  Catholicism  it  will 
mean  further  superstition,  ignorance,  and  oppression; 
to  attempt  such  a  continuance  will  stifle  the  new  dem- 
ocracy which  is  trying  to  find  establishment  in  the  con- 
ceptions of  the  people.  And  this  they  will  not  easily 
tolerate.  Eventually  they  will  come  to  understand  the 
conflict  belween  their  religion  and  their  national  con- 
sciousness—they are  coming  now  to  understand  it — and 
then  their  religion  will  suffer.  If  there  is  no  other  faith 
to  supplant  it  in  their  affections  they  will  be  likely  to 
believe  that  the  Bolsheviks  were  right,  and  religion  will 
be  thrown  overboard  entirely — and  we  know  what  that 
will  mean. 

What  shall  be  said  of  the  other  branches  of  the 
Slavic  tree  ?  In  a  window  on  Regent  street  and  Picca- 
dilly Circus  there  is  a  streaming  banner  which  reads, 
"Bohemia,  Britain's  Ally,"  and  underneath  it  is  a  great 
picture  of  John  Huss,  the  protomartyr  of  the  Reforma- 
tion ;  it  is  a  typical  indication  of  the  spirit  of  the  Czechs. 
Even  though  an  almost  total  ignorance  of  this  people 
prevailed  among  the  masses  in  America,  they  were  rec- 
ognized as  a  co-belligerent  nation  with  the  Allies  and 
the  United  States;  and  although  they  had  no  home  and 
no  national  capital,  the  mere  enunciation  of  their  desires 
was  sufficient  to  change  the  entire  attitude  of  the  Allies, 
as  expressed  by  President  Wilson,  towards  Austria- 
Hungary.  Peace  conditions  which  were  laid  down  be- 


THE  CHALLENGE  TO  THE  CHURCH  219 

fore  the  emergence  of  the  Czecho-Slavs  and  the  Jugo- 
Slavs  at  once  hecame  obsolete  when  these  people  pro- 
claimed their  ambitions  for  freedom. 

And  now  we  hear  of  them  everywhere.  Their  voice 
shook  the  fragile  foundations  of  the  House  of  Haps- 
burg  until  it  tottered  and  fell;  that  voice  tore  asunder 
the  Dual  Monarchy  and  liberated  the  suppressed  senti- 
ments of  the  varied  nationalities  contained  in  that  poly- 
glot empire.  Czecho-Slavs  and  Jugo-Slovaks,  Magyars 
and  Teutons,  all  seek  self-determination,  and  it  seems 
likely  that  as  many  nations  as  there  are  constituent 
races  will  emerge  from  the  old  empire  of  Franz  Joseph. 

The  land  of  Czechs  is  the  geographical  center  of 
Europe,  an  equal  distance  from  all  European  seas,  and 
these  people  have  the  lowest  proportion  of  illiteracy  of 
all  the  provinces  in  the  constituency  of  Austria-Hun- 
gary. They  have  inhabited  this  section  since  the  sixth 
century  according  to  historical  certainty,  and  the  schol- 
ars believe  they  have  occupied  it  since  about  500  B.  C. 
These  people  have  been  Christians  since  8Y3  A.  D., 
and  they  would  have  been  Christians  before  had  not 
their  distrust  of  the  German  impelled  them  to  wait 
until  the  Moravians  came  to  teach  them.  They  have 
been  Protestants  longer  than  any  other  people  of  Europe, 
and  they  have  suffered  more  for  their  faith  in  Protes- 
tantism than  any  other.  They  produced  John  Huss  and 
bore  the  agony  of  the  Hussite  Wars ;  the  Catholics  made 
war  on  them  because  their  [Nobles  declared,  "We  will 
defend  the  law  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  its  pious, 
humble,  and  steadfast  preachers  at  the  cost  of  our  blood, 


220        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

scorning  all  Human  decrees  that  may  be  contrary  to 
them." 

The  Czechs  lost  their  independence  and  came  under 
the  hoof  of  Austria  at  the  Battle  of  "Bila  Hora"  (White 
Hill)  on  November  8,  1620,  and  since  that  time  they 
have  been  victims  of  oppression  and  intolerance.  The 
first  act  of  Austria  was  to  destroy  all  the  books  printed 
in  the  language  of  the  Czechs,  because  all  such  con- 
tained heresy;  the  next  was  to  execute,  on  June  21, 
1621,  all  their  leaders  and  confiscate  the  property  of 
their  sympathizers.  All  the  Nobility  were  exiled, 
Protestants  were  expelled,  Catholicism  was  set  up,  the 
clerical  estate  was  added  to  the  three  estates  then  exist- 
ent and  made  superior  to  all  others,  and  the  German 
language  was  established  by  force.  Thus  matters  have 
stood  for  four  hundred  years.  In  all  their  vicissi- 
tudes during  these  centuries  the  Czechs  have  always  been 
victims  of  an  insidious  and  powerful  German  propa- 
ganda, but  they  have  never  faltered  in  their  contentions 
for  constitutionality,  as  opposed  to  autocracy,  in  the 
Austrian  parliament. 

No  persons  have  done  more  to  secure  an  open  Bible  in 
the  vernacular  of  the  people  than  the  Czechs.  In  the 
fourteenth  century,  Thomas  of  Stitney  wrote  his  theo- 
logical works  in  the  native  language,  and  for  this  he 
aroused  the  bitterness  of  the  monks,  who  insisted  on 
the  use  of  latin,  unreadable  by  the  people.  Around 
their  language  has  been  waged  the  fiercest  of  conflicts. 
Always  the  Catholics  have  hated  it ;  always  the  Czechs 
have  clung  to  it,  In  all  the:  movements  and  spirits  of 


THE  CHALLENGE  TO  THE  CHURCH 

the  Reformation  these  devoted  peoples  have  been  the 
leaders,  and  to  them  the  Protestant  forces  of  the  world 
owe  a  great  obligation. 

For  400  years  the  Czechs  have  been  the  victims  of 
religious  bigotry  and  political  oppression,  for  of  course 
Austria  would  not  be  kind  to  the  descendants  and  fol- 
lowers of  John  Huss,  whose  spirit  still  breathes  through 
this  people  and  is  the  source  of  their  inspiration.  The 
famous  fifth  regiment  of  the  Czech  army  bears  his  name, 
and  an  American  traveler  who  recently  visited  the  lead- 
ers of  this  army  in  Siberia  found  on  the  wall  of  a  freight 
car  in  a  troop  train  a  wonderful  painting  of  Huss  at 
the  stake,  executed  by  a  private  of  the  fifth  regiment  who 
had  formerly  been  a  famous  artist  in  Vienna.  This  is 
the  spirit  of  those  men  who  have  at  last  secured  their 
freedom.  And  when  they  secured  it  they  hoisted  no  red 
flag,  espoused  no  Bolshevism,  turned  loose  no  anarchy. 
Although  a  scattered  people,  without  a  land  of  their 
own  or  any  seat  of  government,  they  elected  a  Presi- 
dent and  proceeded  to  organize  for  an  orderly  and  civil- 
ized existence. 

The  settlement  of  these  people  into  a  national  exist- 
ence will  afford  an  unique  opportunity  to  the  American 
Church.  They  have  a  claim  upon  us,  for  they  fur- 
nished the  cradle  of  Protestantism,  and  their  loyalty 
to  Huss  shows  the  strength  of  their  religious  convic- 
tions. Already  they  have  drawn  upon  our  resources, 
for  many  of  the  American  missionaries  in  China,  Japan, 
and  Korea  have  been  called  from  their  fields  into  service 
with  the  Czechs  in  Siberia,  and  certain  hospitals  have 


SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

sent  their  entire  staffs  and  senior  classes  to  undertake 
relief  work  among  the  soldiers  and  refugees  in  Vladivos- 
tok. These  missionaries,  according  to  their  report, 
"found  such  conditions  as  would  stir  any  man  with  red 
blood  in  his  veins.  Through  the  perfidy  of  the  Bolshevik 
Soviets,  urged  on  by  the  Germans,  and  the  continuous 
fighting  all  across  Europe  and  Siberia,  the  Czechs  were, 
through  lack  of  medical  attention,  in  a  most  pitiable  con- 
dition. It  seemed  necessary  to  undertake  responsibility 
for  entirely  supplying  the  medical  arm  of  the  Czech, 
army."  In  addition  to  the  need  of  the  Czechs,  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  refugees  have  fled  through  Si- 
beria to  the  Pacific  and  clamor  to  the  missionaries  for 
help. 

The  Slavic  people,  then,  constitute  an  inviting  mis- 
sionary field  for  Protestantism,  and  the  help  which  the 
missionaries  already  are  rendering  to  them  in  Vladivos- 
tok and  Siberia  is  preparing  the  field  for  a  more  in- 
tensive cultivation.  The  Church  should  undertake  the 
task,  not  only  for  the  sake  of  the  peoples  themselves 
but  even  for  her  own  salvation.  We  of  the  west  have 
become  commercialized  and  self -centered ;  there  are  al- 
ready evidences  that  the  war  has  not  cured  us.  Even 
the  soldiers  of  France  seem  sorry  for  the  Americans, 
because  they  say  we  cannot  rise  above  our  interest  in 
mere  things.  We  need  to  be  saved  from  our  worship 
of  the  physical,  and  the  Church  shares  this  need  with 
all  other  departments  of  our  activity.  The  best  way 
to  save  ourselves  is  to  kindle  elsewhere  a  different  spirit. 
The  Slavs  have  it.  If  we  will  give  the  idealism  of  the 


THE  CHALLENGE  TO  THE  CHURCH  223 

Russians  and  kindred  peoples  free  play  under  the  in- 
fluence of  a  liberal  faith,  we  may  expect  to  see  come 
from  them  a  wave  of  spiritual  appreciation  which  will 
sweep  the  world. 

If  we  add  to  the  challenge  which  is  thus  brought  to 
the  Church  by  the  new  problems  created  through  the 
war  the  tremendous  missionary  demands  which  were  al- 
ready existent  before  the  war  in  China,  Japan,  Korea, 
Africa,  India,  South  America,  and  elsewhere,  demands 
which  have  been  made  a  hundred-fold  more  urgent  by 
the  events  of  the  past  years,  we  will  obtain  a  glimpse 
of  the  duty  of  the  American  Church  toward  the  foreign 
field,  for  whatever  missionary  work  is  undertaken  in 
the  world  at  the  present  time  must  be  carried  out  largely 
by  American  organizations.  And  then  if  we  add  to  all 
that  the  challenge  of  the  home  land — our  cities,  industri- 
al populations,  immigrants,  rural  communities,  negroes, 
and  all  the  social  problems  entailed  by  their  needs — we 
should  be  able  to  understand  that  the  Church  never 
faced  such  a  task  as  that  which  lies  before  her  at  thq 
present  time. 

Before  this  challenge  she  must  not  draw  back  in  such 
a  time  as  this,  and  if  it  be  undertaken  the  Church  must 
plan  and  act  on  a  scale  so  large  that  it  would  have  stag- 
gered the  men  of  the  past  generation.  Where  we  once 
expended  hundreds  we  must  now  pour  out  millions,  and 
divisions,  petty  insistence  upon  trivialities,  the  ambi- 
tions of  ecclesiastical  leaders  and  organizations  must  all 
be  laid  aside  and  forgotten.  There  is  no  other  way  out 
for  us ;  the  task  must  be  undertaken  or  the  Church  will 


SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

lose  her  influence  in  the  life  of  our  time.  The  Chris- 
tian leader,  or  the  ordinary  Christian  man,  who  balks  at 
the  program,  or  who  refuses  to  cast  his  attitude  and  his 
liberality  on  such  a  scale,  is  the  real  enemy  of  the 
faith  and  must  have  no  place  among  us. 

Once  the  duty  of  a  Christian  man  seemed  to  be 
summed  up  in  the  necessity  of  "being  good" — the  re- 
ligious man  was  one  who  behaved  himself,  went  to 
Church,  and  prayed.  But  in  four  years  the  ideal  has 
been  forced  infinitely  beyond  that.  To  the  world,  and 
especially  to  the  millions  of  men  under  arms  and  who 
will  return  to  dominate  affairs  in  all  nations,  religion 
now  means  unselfish  devotion,  loving  service,  complete 
sacrifice  of  self  and  possessions  in  doing  good. 

Who  is  the  religious  person  in  the  minds  of  the  sol- 
diers? The  Salvation  Army  lassie  or  her  kind.  The 
religious  man  is  one  who  is  willing  to  brave  the  dan- 
gers of  a  modern  war  in  order  to  scrub  floors  and  do 
drudgery  for  his  fellow  man.  He  is  one  who  is  willing 
to  toil  over  shell-swept  roads,  to  sleep  on  the  ground  in  a 
front  line  trench,  to  clamber  over  a  parapet  to  be  with 
his  friends  in  death  and  danger — to  bare  his  breast  to 
death  and  place  his  naked  human  spirit  against  the 
guns  of  a  whole  world  in  order  to  be  a  friend  to  man. 
He  is  a  man  who  places  no  value  upon  himself  or  any 
thing  he  may  possess,  who  counts  his  life  as  of  less 
value  than  a  chance  to  be  a  brother.  He  is  one  who 
gives  all  and  risks  all  just  to  lielp  a  little  in  his  own 
way.  That  is  what  a  religious  man  means  to  a  soldier 
who  has  seen  such  men  in  the  mud  of  the  front  line, 


THE  CHALLENGE  TO  THE  CHURCH;  225 

in  a  gun  emplacement  deep  in  the  earth,  carrying 
stretchers  or  supplies  across  a  field  of  death,  kneeling 
on  the  blood-soaked  ground  with  his  canteen  to  the 
lips  of  a  dying  friend.  And  to  them  a  religious  insti- 
tution means  something  which  can  inspire  the  motives 
under  which  such  men  act,  and  which  will  pour  out  its 
millions  to  supply  the  means  whereby  such  men  can 
render  their  full  quota  of  service. 

How  puny  will  religious  men  and  institutions  of  the 
average  type  appear  when  these  return  and  look  at 
them !  How  small  visioned  will  appear  the  Church  with 
its  old  program  of  preaching  and  paying  assessments! 
We  need  not  expect  men  who  have  saved  a  world  in 
the  mightiest  movement  of  human  history  to  be  content 
with  an  average  Christian,  an  average  religion,  or  an 
average  Church.  The  day  of  such  averages  as  we  have 
known  is  forever  in  the  past 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  GERMANS  AND  THE  TURKS 

It  appeared  somewhat  incongruous  in  the  beginning 
that  there  should  be  an  alliance  between  the  Germans 
and  the  Turks,  for  a  surface  view  of  things  inclined  us 
to  believe  that  the  two  races  were  absolutely  incom- 
patible. The  Turk  is  known  through  history  and 
around  the  world  as  the  "Unspeakable."  He  is  the 
bloodiest,  most  cruel,  and  most  villainous  pagan  on 
earth;  his  instrument  of  propaganda  is  the  sword  and 
his  most  characteristic  act  of  worship  is  the  spilling 
of  human  blood.  He  hates  Christianity  with  a  deadly 
hatred,  and  in  all  the  ages  of  his  occupancy  in  Europe 
or  in  Asia  his  misrule  and  his  outbreaking  criminality 
against  Christ  and  His  followers  have  been  a  standing 
source  of  amazement  to  the  civilized  world. 

On  the  other  hand  the  German  has  boasted  around 
the  world  about  his  standing  in  the  sight  of  God.  The 
German  Church  bolstered  up  the  doctrine  of  the  di- 
vine right  of  the  Hohenzollerns.  The  Germans  have 
assumed  that  they  are  the  chosen  of  God  and  enjoy  a 
monopoly  of  His  favor.  "Germany  is  precisely — who 
would  deny  it,"  preaches  Pastor  H.  Francke,  "the  rep- 
resentative of  the  highest  morality,  of  the  purest  hu- 

226 


THE  GERMANS  AND  THE  TURKS  227 

inanity,  of  the  most  chastened  Christianity.  Its  defeat, 
its  decline,  would  mean  a  falling  back  to  the  worst  bar- 
barism." Pastor  W.  Lehman  remarks  that  "Germany's 
fight  against  the  whole  world  is  in  reality  the  battle  of 
the  spirit  against  the  whole  world's  infamy,  falsehood, 
and  devilish  cunning."  It  is  the  doctrine  of  F.  Philippi 
that  awe  execute  God's  almighty  will,  and  the  edicts  of 
His  justice  we  will  fulfill,  imbued  with  holy  rage,  in 
vengeance  upon  the  ungodly.  God  calls  us  to  murderous 
battles,  even  if  worlds  should  thereby  fall  in  ruins.  We 
are  woven  together  like  the  chastening  lash  of  war ;  we 
flame  aloft  like  lightning!  like  gardens  of  roses  our 
wounds  blossom  at  the  gates  of  Heaven."  "Is  God  the 
God  of  these  others?"  asks  a  noted  preacher,  with  ref- 
erence to  the  enemies  of  Germany;  and  this  is  his 
answer:  "!No;  they  serve  at  best  Satan,  the  father  of 
lies."  Another  insists  that  "the  German  soul  is  the 
world's  soul,  God  and  Germany  belong  to  one  another." 
This  is  the  way  Pastor  J.  Rump,  in  his  "War  Devo- 
tions," looks  at  it:  "The  kingdom  of  God  must  now 
assert  itself  against  the  kingdom  of  all  that  is  base,  evil 
and  vile :  the  kingdom  of  light  against  the  kingdom  of 
darkness.  Against  a  world  of  superhuman  evil,  the 
power  of  superhuman  justice,  truth,  and  love  goes  out 
to  battle.  We  stand  on  the  side  of  God,  but  all  God's 
adversaries  will  find  that  God  will  not  be  mocked.  We 
have  become  the  heirs  of  Israel,  the  people  of  the  Old 
Testament  covenant.  We  shall  be  the  bearers  of  God's 
promises.  Verily  the  Bible  is  our  book.  It  was  given 
and  assigned  to  us."  "As  was  Israel  among  the  heathen, 


228        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

so  is  Germany  among  the  modern  nations — the  pious 
heart  of  Europe,"  says  Pastor  Tolzien  in  "My  German 
Fatherland."  The  Kaiser  speaks  of  "Me  and  God" 
with  pious  unction,  always  placing,  in  speech  and  atti- 
tude, the  "me"  before  the  "God." 

These  quotations,  which  could  easily  be  multiplied 
a  hundred  times,  establish  the  point:  The  German  re- 
gards himself  as  the  elect  of  God,  the  center  of  God's 
plan,  the  embodiment  of  His  kingdom,  the  possessor  of 
His  favor.  Of  course,  they  show  another  thing  to  us, 
viz.,  that  the  Germans  under  the  dominion  of  such  be- 
liefs are  a  nation  of  swell-headed  and  sacrilegious  fools 
who  ought  to  be  exterminated  for  the  general  good  of 
civilization.  But  for  our  present  purpose  it  is  enough 
to  draw  the  conclusion  that  they  are  ultra-pious  and 
assume  an  air  of  superiority  in  all  the  elements  of  the 
Christian  faith. 

This  was  the  people  who,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
war,  raised  a  great  hue  and  cry  because  Japan  hap- 
pened to  be  an  ally  of  England.  "England  stirs  up 
against  us  the  yellow  Jap"  went  thrilling  around  the 
world,  and  the  manifesto  signed  by  the  leading  lights 
of  German  scholarship  depicted  the  backset  which  the 
Christian  missionary  enterprise  would  suffer  because 
of  this  alliance.  But  in  a  few  more  months  Germany 
entered  into  an  alliance  with  the  Unspeakable  Turk. 
Instantly  the  devotion  of  the  German  scholarship  to  the 
welfare  of  Christian  missions  waned.  The  emperor, 
ranking  member  of  the  "Me  and  God"  combination, 
paraded  and  smirked  in  the  uniform  of  a  Turkish  gen- 


THE  GERMANS  AND  THE  TURKS 

eral,  and  a  general  seance  of  commbiation  was  entered 
upon. 

It  was  a  strange  alliance  to  the  rest  of  the  world, 
but  the  Germans  saw  no  inconsistency  in  it  at  all. 
So  far  as  the  German  scholars,  self-appointed  protectors 
of  Christian  missions,  were  concerned,  it  was  a  perfectly 
logical  combination.  The  Turk  is  not  nearly  so  vile  as 
the  Jap !  They  forgot  instantly  that  before  Turkey  en- 
tered the  war  Pastor  Tolzien  had  vehemently  denounced 
Germany's  opponents  because  certain  Mohammedans 
were  serving  in  their  armies.  And,  in  order  to  satisfy 
the  consciences  of  people  who  might  be  struck  by  the 
contradiction  of  the  German-Turkish  alliance,  the  schol- 
ars set  about  the  task  of  explaining  the  matter.  The 
duty  fell  to  the  lot  of  Professor  W.  Hermann,  professor 
of  theology  at  Marburg,  who  settled  the  question  in  his 
pamphlet,  "The  Turks,  the  English,  and  We  German 
Christians." 

The  ancient  hatred  between  Turks  and  Christians, 
he  believes,  rests  upon  a  great  misunderstanding. 
"It  is  true  that  the  Mohammedans  do  not  know 
the  Old  or  the  New  Testament,  and  Mohammed 
did  not  respect  Jesus.  Yet  they  are  in  some  respects 
superior  to  us.  It  is  a  stupendous  feat  that  this  re- 
ligion should  in  so  short  a  time  have  spread  from  India 
to  Granada.  Another  point  is  that  the  Turks  have  been 
unified  by  their  religion,  the  Germans  have  not.  The 
main  thing,  however,  is  this,  that  the  faith  of  the  Turks 
assures  them  that  God  ordains  everything,  and  is  the 
reality  in  everything.  The  word  Islam  means  exactly 


230        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

the  same  as  the  Biblical  word  faith:  that  is,  complete 
self-surrender.  As  Goethe  said,  when  this  became  clear 
to  him :  'Then  we  are  all  of  us,  in  reality,  believers  in 
Islam!'  But  Mohammed  also  maintains  that  we  are 
free  and  responsible  for  what  we  do,  wherefore  God  will 
judge  us  all ;  and  in  this  too  we  agree  with  him.  On  no 
account  must  one  suppose  that  the  Mohammedan  belief 
in  God  is  only  a  belief  in  an  inflexible  fate.  ISTo;  it  is 
also  a  belief  in  God's  wisdom  and  goodness.  There  is 
certainly  this  difference,  that  only  by  looking  to  Jesus 
can  we  Christians  find  courage  to  hold  such  a  faith. 
Nevertheless  we  must  maintain  that  we  stand  near  to 
the  Turks  in  our  faith — only  they  have  not  recognized 
the  right  foundation  of  the  faith  they  hold.  But  we 
Germans  can  help  them  to  that.  .  .  .  We  Germans  can 
obey,  so  can  the  Turks.  Just  because  we  believe  in  un- 
conditional obedience,  we  Germans  feel  ourselves  at  one 
with  the  Turk,  and  divided  from  the  English.  See  how 
barren  the  spiritual  life  of  England  has  become! 
Amongst  its  statesmen  there  are,  indeed,  artful,  cool  men 
of  business,  and  reckless  men  of  violence,  down  to  the 
criminal  type,  but  not  a  single  deeply  pious  man,  ca- 
pable of  appealing  to  the  hidden  springs  within  his  peo- 
ple. This  is  the  reason  why  the  mastery  of  England 
was  felt  as  a  nightmare  by  the  world.  But  now  that 
Germans  and  Turks  are  fo  have  their  way,  things  will 
be  different.  .  .  .  The  German  nation  is  certainly  at 
the  present  time  the  instrument  of  the  spirit;  but  it  is 
on  the  spirit  itself  that  all  depends,  the  right  fear  of 
j  the  will  to  serve,  faithfulness  to  one's  mission. 


THE  GERMANS  AND  THE  TURKS   231 

And  this  spirit  we  find  also  in  the  Turks.  It  is  this 
which,  in  the  last  analysis,  unites  us."  (Bang:  "Hur- 
rah and  Hallelujah/7  170-173.) 

So  this  settles  it.  The  Turks  and  Germans  are  not  so 
radically  different  after  all.  This  is  a  truth  which  I 
have  long  suspected,  and  it  has  recently  ripened  to  a 
deep  conviction,  and  I  am  glad  to  find  that  the  Hun's 
own  scholarship  confirms  my  view  of  the  case. 

The  Germans,  then,  have  a  clear  conscience,  and  once 
the  conscience  is  clear  their  spirits  can  respond  freely 
to  the  natural  elements  of  character  which  draw  them 
together — German  and  Turk.  So  the  Kaiser  proclaimed 
a  holy  war  on  behalf  of  the  Turks,  and  while  Islam 
murdered,  starved,  butchered,  drowned  the  Armenian 
Christians,  Kultur  stalked  through  Belgium  and  France, 
outraging  women  and  children,  sinking  neutral  ships, 
bombing  hospitals,  deporting  citizens  of  the  devastated 
regions,  forcing  women  to  dig  their  trenches,  and  com- 
mitting depredations  which  have  horrified  the  civilized 
world.  Naturally,  "we  Germans  feel  ourselves  at  one 
with  the  Turk,  and  divided  from  England." 

Traveling  in  Prance  recently,  I  secured  some  of  the 
circulars  posted  by  the  German  commanders  in  the 
various  towns  and  villages  which  they  overran  in  France 
and  Belgium.  A  few  extracts  from  these  circulars  will 
perhaps  be  illuminating:  "To  the  Belgian  People: 
It  is  to  my  very  great  regret  that  the  German  troops 
find  themselves  compelled  to  cross  the  Belgian  frontier. 
They  are  acting  under  the  constraint  of  an  unavoidable 
necessity,  Belgium's  neutrality  having  been  violated  by 


SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

French  officers  who,  in  disguise,  crossed  Belgian  terri- 
tory by  motor-car  in  order  to  make  their  way  into  Ger- 
many. ...  I  give  formal  pledges  to  the  Belgian  popu- 
lation that  it  will  have  nothing  to  suffer  from  the  hor- 
rors of  war,  that  we  will  pay  in  gold  for  the  provisions 
that  must  be  taken  from  the  country,  and  that  our  sol- 
diers will  prove  themselves  the  best  of  friends  to  a 
people  for  whom  we  feel  the  highest  esteem.  Von 
Emmich."  "Notice.  All  the  inhabitants  of  the  house, 
with  the  exception  of  children  under  14,  and  their  moth- 
ers, and  also  of  old  people,  must  prepare  themselves  for 
deportation  in  an  hour-and-a-half's  time.  All  appeals 
will  be  useless.  Any  one  attempting  to  evade  depor- 
tation will  be  punished  without  mercy.  Etappen  Kom- 
mandantur."  "Proclamation.  The  Tribunal  of  the 
Imperial  German  Council  of  War  sitting  in  Brussels 
has  pronounced  the  following  sentences:  Condemned 
to  death:  Edith  Cavell,  Teacher,  of  Brussels.  The 
sentence  passed  on  Edith  Cavell  has  already  been  fully 
executed.  The  Governor-General  of  Brussels  brings 
these  facts  to  the  knowledge  of  the  public  that  they  may 
serve  as  a  warning.  The  Governor  of  the  City,  General 
Von  Bissing."  "Proclamation.  In  future  the  inhabi- 
tants of  places  situated  near  railways  and  telegraph  lines 
which  have  been  destroyed  will  be  punished  without 
mercy  (whether  they  are  guilty  of  this  destruction  or 
not) .  For  this  purpose,  hostages  have  been  taken  in  all 
places  in  the  vicinity  of  railways  in  danger  of  similar 
attacks ;  and  at  the  first  attempt  to  destroy  any  railway, 
telegraph,  or  telephone  line,  they,  will  be  shot  imme- 


|l>e  icf)  feiri  lei  6ucf>  allefa 

»          «  »MAffh2ftt9 


GEUMAX    PROPAGANDA 

"IN  THE  TRKNCHES— 'BEHOLD^  i  AM  WITH  YOU  ALWAYS'" 


GEKMAX    PROPAGANDA 

"AT  THE    ADVANCE    POSTS el  AM   THE   GOOD   SHEPHERD'  " 


THE  GERMANS  AND  THE  TURKS 

diately.  The  Governor.  Von  der  Goltz."  "Notice  to 
the  Population.  In  order  sufficiently  to  ensure  the 
safety  of  our  troops  and  the  tranquillity  of  the  popula- 
tion of  Reims,  the  persons  mentioned  have  heen  seized 
as  hostages  by  the  Commander  of  the  German  Army. 
These  hostages  will  be  shot  if  there  is  the  least  disorder. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  the  town  remains  perfectly  calm 
and  quiet,  these  hostages  will  be  placed  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  German  Army.  The  General  Command- 
ing." "Proclamation.  Inhabitants  of  both  sexes  are 
strictly  forbidden  to  leave  their  houses  so  far  as  this  is 
not  absolutely  necessary  for  making  short  rounds,  to 
buy  provisions  or  water  the  cattle.  They  are  absolutely 
forbidden  to  leave  their  houses  at  night  under  any  cir- 
cumstances whatever.  Whoever  attempts  to  leave  the 
place,  by  day  or  night,  upon  any  pretext,  whatever,  will 
be  shot.  Potatoes  can  only  be  dug  with  the  comman- 
dant's consent  and  under  military  supervision.  The  Ger- 
man troops  have  orders  to  carry  out  these  directions 
strictly,  by  sentinels  and  patrols,  who  are  authorized 
to  fire  on  any  one  departing  from  these  directions.  The 
General  Commanding."  "Order.  To  the  People  of 
Liege.  The  population  of  Andenne,  after  making  a 
display  of  peaceful  intentions  towards  our  troops,  at- 
tacked them  in  the  most  treacherous  manner.  With  my 
authorization,  the  General  commanding  these  troops  has 
reduced  the  town  to  ashes  and  has  had  110  persons 
shot  I  bring  this  fact  to  the  knowledge  of  the  people 
of  Liege  in  order  that  they  may  know  what  fate  to  ex- 


SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

pect  should  they  adopt  a  similar  attitude.  General  Von 
Billow." 

Comment  on  such  proclamations  as  these  is  unneces- 
sary. They  throw  an  interesting  light  on  the  German 
declaration  that  "amongst  English  statesmen  there  is 
not  a  single  deeply  pious  man,  capable  of  appealing  to 
the  hidden  springs  within  his  people.  Now  that  Ger- 
mans and  Turks  have  their  way,  things  will  be  different. 
The  German  nation  is  certainly  at  the  present  moment 
the  instrument  of  the  spirit." 

With  these  things  before  us,  we  would  naturally  ex- 
pect Germans  to  be  wrathful  when  Jerusalem,  .the  holy 
city  of  Christianity,  was  wrested  from  the  vile  Turk. 
At  this  event  a  thrill  of  joy  ran  around  the  world;  it 
became  the  subject  of  optimism  everywhere.  The 
Pope  has  forbidden  any  Christian  to  lift  his  hand 
in  an  attempt  to  restore  the  holy  city  to  the  Turk,  and 
faithful  Jews  are  happy  and  hopeful  in  many  lands. 
All  Christians  are  happy  save  the  Germans,  the  self- 
acclaimed  Superchristians.  Professor  Delbriick  has  al- 
ready proclaimed  that  the  city  of  the  Cross  must  again 
be  restored  to  the  Turk,  and  an  appeal  has  been  issued  to 
the  Zionist  Jews  to  rally  to  the  cause  of  the  German 
and  Turk  to  help  them  raise  the  crescent  over  the 
ancient  city  of  David  again.  This  appeal  to  the  Zionists 
is  perhaps  the  most  ridiculous  manifesto  which  the  Ger- 
mans have  put  out  during  the  war. 

Closely  allied  to  this  is  the  action  of  Dr.  Adolf  Deiss- 
man,  professor  of  theology  in  Berlin,  in  abjectly  plead- 
ing with  some  of  the  Christian  scholars  of  Europe  to 


THE  GERMANS  AND  THE  TURKS   235 

use  their  influence  in  securing  a  modification  of  the 
terms  of  the  armistice  imposed  upon  Germany,  after 
having,  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  given  expression  to 
such  sentiments  as  the  following:  "The  German  God 
is  not  only  the  theme  of  some  of  our  poets  and  prophets, 
but  also  a  historian  like  Max  Lenz  has,  with  fiery  tongue 
and  in  deep  thankfulness,  borne  witness  to  the  revela- 
tion of  the  German  God  in  our  holy  war.  The  German, 
the  National,  God !  .  .  .  Has  war  in  this  case  impaired, 
or  has  it  steeled  religion  ?  I  say  it  has  steeled  it.  ... 
This  is  no  relapse  to  a  lower  level,  but  a  mounting  up  to 
God  Himself."  "It  is  a  persistent  struggle  for  posses- 
sions, power  and  sovereignty  that  primarily  governs  the 
relations  of  one  nation  to  another,  and  right  is  respected 
so  far  only  as  it  is  compatible  with  advantage."  "In 
the  age  of  the  most  tremendous  mobilization  of  physical 
and  spiritual  forces  the  world  has  ever  seen,  we  proclaim 
— no,  we  do  not  proclaim  it,  but  it  reveals  itself — the 
Religion  of  Strength." 

The  religious  genius  of  the  German  peoples  peculiarly 
fitted  itself  into  the  facts  of  this  war  and  lent  itself 
readily  to  the  methods  with  which  the  war  was  waged. 
The  religious  life  of  the  German  Empire  in  the  past 
few  years  has  been  rather  sharply  divided  into  two 
classes.  First,  there  is  the  political  Prussian  state 
Church,  the  most  dismal  orthodoxy  on  earth.  It  preaches 
a  thirteenth-century  gospel  and  stands  for  a  medieval 
theology.  It  is  this  orthodoxy  which  has  bolstered  the 
Emperor  in  his  declaration  of  "divine  right,"  and  which 
caused  him  as  late  as  1903  to  intervene  in  a  theological 


236        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

discussion,  in  the  course  of  which,  intervention  he  de- 
clared that  his  own  grandfather  had  been  the  chosen 
of  God.  Under  the  henign  influence  of  a  state  Church, 
the  German  Empire  has  the  distinction  of  being  the 
only  nation  of  Christendom  to  adhere  to  the  very  last  to 
the  outgrown  notion  of  the  divine  right  of  kings.  This 
German  orthodoxy  retains  the  old  Hebrew  Jehovah  as 
its  God,  a  God  of  battles  who  has  chosen  Prussia  from 
among  the  nations  and  assured  to  the  Germans  a  mon- 
opoly of  his  favor.  The  preachers  have  referred  to  him 
as  "dwelling  above  the  cherubim  and  seraphim  and  the 
Zeppelins !" 

Edmond  von  Heyking,  once  a  German  consul  in  New 
York,  referred  to  God  as  "our  great  Ally,  who  stands 
behind  the  German  battalions,  behind  our  ships  and  sub- 
marines, and  behind  our  blessed  militarism."  Pastor 
W.  Lehmann  speaks  of  the  German  "defending  God 
against  the  world,"  to  the  end  that  "the  German  soul," 
which  is  "God's  soul,"  "shall  and  will  rule  over  the 
world."  Pastor  Eump  of  Berlin  issued  a  volume  of 
"War  Devotions,"  through  the  pages  of  which  he  fed  the 
soldiers  on  such  a  wholesome  diet  as  this:  "We  shall 
permeate,  in  the  name  of  God,  a  world  which  has  be- 
come poor  and  desolate."  "We  have  become  the  heirs 
of  Israel,  the  people  of  the  Old  Testament  covenant. 
We  shall  be  the  bearers  of  God's  promises."  "The  Bible 
is  our  book.  It  was  given  and  assigned  to  us,  and  we 
read  in  it  the  original  text  of  our  destiny,  which  pro- 
claims to  mankind  salvation  or  disaster  according  as  we 
will  it."  Pastor  Tolzien  believes  that  Germany  is,  "as 


[THE  GERMANS  AND  T,HE  TURKS     237 

was  Israel  among  the  nations,  the  pious  heart  of 
Europe."  Dr.  Preuss,  Licentiate  of  Theology,  preached 
that  "the  thief  who  expiated  a  sinful  past  by  his  repent- 
ance in  the  last  hour,  and  was  outwardly  subjected  to  the 
same  suffering  as  our  Lord,  is  the  type  of  the  Turkish 
nation,  which  now  puts  Christianity  (outside  Germany) 
to  shame."  This  is  German  orthodoxy. 

On  the  other  side  of  her  religious  life,  Germany  has 
the  most  advanced  and  reckless  liberalism  of  the  world ; 
her  rationalism  in  theology  is  as  severe  as  her  orthodoxy. 
Any  person  who  is  at  all  familiar  with  the  theories  of 
German  scholars  with  advanced  theological  ideas  can 
tell  the  opinions  of  such  scholars  on  any  question  in  the 
domain  of  their  science  without  having  reference  to 
their  works,  because  these  scholars  invariably  go  to  the 
last  extremes  of  rationalism.  They  have  declared  most 
of  the  scripture  writings  to  be  unauthentic,  they  have 
banished  miracles  entirely,  and  they  have  reduced  to 
the  vanishing  point  the  divine  element  in  the  nature  of 
Christ.  And  these  are  not  the  so-called  "f  ree  thinkers" ; 
they  are  the  leaders  of  German  theological  thought. 

So  far,  this  is  not  an  unusual  situation,  since  we  have 
both  extremes  here  in  America.  We  have  rationalists  as 
"advanced"  as  any  German.  And  we  also  have  a  group 
of  literalists  whose  mechanical  views  issue  in  pre-mil- 
lenarianism,  an  orthodoxy  as  dismal  and  ancient  as  any- 
thing boasted  by  Germany.  But  neither  of  these  ex- 
tremes exerts  any  appreciable  influence  in  the  religious 
life  of  America.  The  difference  is  that  we  have  a  mid- 
dle ground,  while  Germany  has  not.  She  knows  noth- 


238         SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

ing  of  such  an  influence  as  that  of  our  great  Protestant 
denominations,  which  take  account  of  changing  condi- 
tions and  incorporate  all  the  ideas  and  discoveries  of 
advancing  knowledge  without  going  to  the  absurd  and 
unwarranted  extremes  of  infidelity.  Such  an  influence 
is  so  utterly  unknown  in  Germany  that  the  greatest 
scholar  and  philosopher  of  the  land,  Rudolf  Eucken, 
when  he  discovered  that  the  Church  and  a  religious  life 
are  necessities  and  that  neither  Germany's  orthodoxy 
nor  her  rationalism  could  contain  the  religious  aspira- 
tions of  the  race,  jumped  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
whole  organization  of  the  Church  must  be  overthrown. 
He  had  no  conception  of  a  progressive  mean  being  al- 
ready in  existence,  because  his  horizon  was  bounded  by 
the  confines  of  the  German  Empire. 

Now  what  did  that  situation  mean  ?  It  gave  us  the 
great  war ;  orthodoxy  as  well  as  rationalism  is  to  blame 
for  it.  Both  contributed  to  making  the  people  lose  God ; 
the  one  gave  them  a  false  conception  of  His  nature  and 
the  other  caused  them  to  lose  His  morality  and  His  vital 
influence  as  dynamic  powers  in  human  life.  Both, 
from  opposite  standpoints,  gave  the  people  an  external 
God,  and  so  both  were  ready  for  the  war :  the  orthodox 
because  God  willed  it,  the  rationalist  because  there  is  no 
moral  God  to  care.  The  one  made  the  state  the  supreme 
jend  of  God's  purpose,  as  the  Israelites  did;  the  other 
placed  the  aims  of  the  state  above  God's  moral  pur- 
poses. And  when  this  had  been  done  religious  Ger- 
many was  ready  for  the  war,  or  for  anything  else.  So 
when  Belgium  was  invaded  both  could  march  side  by 


GERMANS  AND  THE  TURKS 

side,  the  one  believing  that  the  German  God  willed  it 
even  as  the  Israelitish  God  ordered  the  extermination  of 
the  Canaanites,  and  the  other  not  having  any  relation- 
ship with  God  which  enabled  them  to  know  that  God 
took  any  interest  in  the  matter.  In  both  cases  the  state 
was  supreme  and  common  morality  might  be  cast  to  the 
winds. 

And  so  I  believe  that  the  religious  issues  of  the  war 
will  be  the  destruction  of  both  orthodoxy  and  rational- 
ism. [Never  again  will  men  be  able  to  commit  crimes  in 
the  name  of  God.  The  passing  of  the  greatest  of  all 
earthly  calamities  must  leave  the  world  politically  and 
religiously  better.  Democracy  and  freedom  will  pre- 
vail throughout  the  world  and  autocracy  can  never  re- 
turn, while  the  superficial  clamors  of  those  who  are  for- 
ever seeing  the  world  going  to  hell  and  Christ  return- 
ing will  be  silenced.  Out  of  the  changing  order  there 
seems  destined  to  issue  a  more  vital  religious  faith  than 
anything  we  have  ever  known  before. 


(CHAPTER  XI 

AMONG  THE  TOILEBS 

The  person  who  visits  Europe  with  his  eyes  open 
in  these  days  will  soon  understand  that  the  people  are 
being  born.  Democracy  is  in  the  air  and  the  common- 
ality is  coming  into  a  standing  which  it  never  before 
possessed,  for  the  world  realizes  that  the  ultimate  man 
is  the  toiler  and  is  according  to  him  a  new  respect. 
To-day  in  Europe  the  laborer  has  a  greater  respect, 
more  money,  and  more  influence  than  he  ever  had  before. 
One  morning  I  chanced  to  glance  through  the  "want 
ads"  of  a  daily  paper  and  the  notice  that  caught  and 
held  my  attention  was  this:  "Wanted,  a  piano  and  a 
high-grade  player  by  a  lady  munition  worker  with  the 
ready  money."  A  day  later  I  saw  this  advertisement 
reproduced  by  another  paper  under  the  heading:  "The 
Modern  Plutocracy."  And  I  chanced  to  overhear  a  con- 
versation in  a  tea  room  between  two  elderly  ladies  in 
which  one  of  them  complained  that  these  munition 
workers  had  purchased  all  the  good  pianos  so  that  it 
was  impossible  for  "the  better  element"  to  obtain  one. 
Previously  I  had  waited  over  an  hour  in  a  shoe  store 
before  I  could  make  a  purchase,  and  at  last  the  shoes 
I  bought  were  fitted  to  my  feet  by  a  young  lady;  the 

240 


AMONG  THE  TOILERS 

manager  explained  that  the  government  had  taken  ten 
of  his  twelve  salesmen  and  it  was  practically  impos- 
sible to  accommodate  the  customers.  Everywhere  could 
be  seen  posters  begging  for  men  and  women  to  accept 
positions  of  various  kinds,  and  it  was  easy  to  under- 
stand that  no  person  need  be  idle  if  he  nad  the  least  in- 
clination to  work.  He  could  be  employed  for  twenty- 
four  hours  each  day  and  seven  days  in  the  week  if  such 
were  physically  possible,  and  at  wages  higher  than  he 
could  have  obtained  anywhere  before  the  war. 

Thus  I  became  intensely  interested  in  the  life  of 
the  workers  in  the  warring  countries  and  set  out  upon 
the  quest  for  fuller  information  concerning  them.  I 
found  that  there  was  no  problem  of  the  unemployed 
for  the  simple  reason  that  there  was  no  such  class  to 
create  a  problem,  except  as  it  might  have  been  made  up 
of  a  few  who  would  not  work  under  any  circumstances. 
Of  course  there  was  a  scarcity  of  workers ;  it  could  not 
have  been  otherwise  with  such  an  army  in  the  field. 
And  this  scarcity,  together  with  the  great  increase  in 
munition  works  and  allied  industries  taken  over  by  the 
government,  had  set  in  motion  the  competitive  machin- 
ery which  had  boosted  wages  to  such  a  point.  The  work- 
ers were  no  more  dominated  by  the  altruistic  and  patri- 
otic spirit  in  war  times  than  they  had  been  in  the  days 
of  peace;  they  were  out  for  the  cash  and  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  take  advantage  of  the  severe  situation  in  order 
to  better  their  own  condition,  being  spurred  on  in  this 
by  their  unions  and  the  agitators. 

I  welcomed  gladly  an  invitation  from  the  govern- 


SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  [THE  WAR 

merit  to  pay  visits  to  the  various  munition  factories. 
Up  at  Gretna  there  were  twenty  thousand  young  women 
making  great  shells,  at  Woolwich  still  more  were  work- 
ing in  the  arsenal  plant  turning  out  the  great  field 
guns,  and  at  Enfield  I  watched  them  making  the  famous 
Enfield  rifle  and  rebuilding  German  machine  guns  to  be 
sent  back  and  turned  against  the  former  owners.  The 
commandant  in  charge  of  one  of  these  plants  told  me 
that  a  certain  group  of  workers,  which  he  designated, 
who  were  by  no  means  the  most  highly  paid  in  the  fac- 
tory, earned  by  piece  work  more  than  $40.00  per  week 
and  that  most  of  the  women  were  making  three  times 
as  much  as  they  had  ever  made  before.  These  amounts 
seem  very  large  to  the  English  workers  and  they  are 
happy,  even  if  they  are  not  contented ;  it  would  be  dif- 
ficult to  make  them  contented,  which  is  perhaps  a  good 
thing  for  society  all  around. 

I  observed  that  the  conditions  under  which  the  peo- 
ple live  have  been  appreciably  improved,  although  their 
machines  did  not  seem  to  be  well  equipped  with 
safety  appliances.  The  cleanliness  of  the  plants  and 
the  perfect  order  which  prevailed  were  particularly  no- 
ticeable. There  were  few  hotels  maintained  in  the 
munition  centers,  and  I  found  the  commandants 
more  or  less  opposed  to  their  establishment,  but; 
the  dining  rooms  are  all  very  clean  and  the  food 
is  wholesome  and  cheap.  I  was  at  Enfield  at  the 
noon  hour.  The  workers  eat  in  shifts  of  5,000  each, 
the  men  dining  separately  from  the  women,  and  at  the 
sound  of  the  whistle  the  first  5,000  came  trooping  out, 


AMONG  THE  TOILERS  243 

their  coats  on  and  their  hands  washed.  I  asked  if  they 
were  allowed  to  "knock  off"  a  few  minutes  early  to 
perform  their  ablutions,  and  the  commandant  replied: 
"They  are  supposed  to  run  their  machines  until  the 
whistle  sounds,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  they  are  like 
all  other  workers — they  keep  their  eyes  on  the  clock." 
Here  I  visited  the  savings  bank,  in  charge  of  a  clergy- 
man, and  found  that  the  energetic  campaign  he  had 
introduced  to  educate  the  people  in  the  matter  of 
economy  had  been  so  successful  that  thousands  were 
laying  up  a  surplus. 

How  were  the  poor  being  affected  in  their  homes  and 
personal  life  by  the  war  ?  This  question  occurred  to  me 
so  insistently  that  I  resolved  to  make  some  excursions 
into  the  east  end  in  order  to  investigate  the  social  life 
in  these  conditions.  I  started  from  the  neighborhood 
of  the  great  Methodist  community  center  on  Commercial 
Road.  Under  the  escort  of  the  social  workers  from  this 
mission  I  secured  a  knowledge  of  the  neighborhood  and 
was  ready  to  begin  my  prowlings. 

First  I  was  anxious  to  visit  some  of  the  public  houses, 
the  "poor  men's  clubs,"  as  they  are  apologetically  called 
even  in  England,  in  the  evening  when  the  gayety  was  at 
its  height.  Here  I  encountered  difficulty,  because  the 
restrictions  thrown  about  the  traffic  in  liquor  had  caused 
a  great  reduction  in  the  jollity  of  the  east  end;  some  of 
the  "pubs"  were  forced  to  display  a  sign  early  in  the 
afternoon  informing  their  customers  that  the  allotted 
supply  of  ale  had  been  exhausted  for  the  day.  But  I 
found  a  place  which  usually  held  back  during  the  day- 


SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  VTHE  WAR 

light  hours  that  joy  might  he  unconfined  in  the  evening, 
and  this  establishment  I  resolved  to  visit.  I  strolled 
in  early  in  the  evening,  ahout  ten  o'clock.  It  was  filled 
with  a  motley  crew,  moving  here  and  there  in  the  dense 
clouds  of  tohacco  smoke,  standing  at  the  har,  and  sitting 
at  the  tables.  There  were  a  few  sailors,  one  or  two 
soldiers,  a  couple  of  men  in  civilian  clothing,  and  per- 
haps twenty  women;  the  women  outnumbered  the  men 
more  than  two  to  one.  It  was  the  most  revolting  scene 
I  had  thus  far  encountered.  The  vile  language  of  the 
sailors,  almost  equaled  by  that  of  the  women,  the  thick- 
ness of  the  smoke,  the  stench  of  the  atmosphere  laden 
with  ale-fumes,  the  familiarity  of  the  bar-maids,  and 
the  general  lowness  of  the  environment  was  quite  re- 
pulsive. At  first  I  was  the  recipient  of  many  suspicious 
glances  in  this  "pub"  and  felt  exceedingly  uncomfort- 
able, but  the  knowledge  of  the  friends  who  were  escort- 
ing me  and  the  expenditure  of  a  few  shillings  on  "drinks 
for  the  crowd"  seemed  to  reassure  those  who  at  first  re- 
sented the  presence  of  a  stranger  in  the  camp.  We  fell 
into  a  jolly  party  over  there  in  a  corner — a  soldier,  a 
sailor,  and  three  young  women.  These  girls  were  fairly 
intelligent,  and  a  short  conversation  served  to  dispel  the 
impression  that  I  had  formed  concerning  them.  They 
were  not  at  all  the  class  of  womanhood  I  had  expected 
them  to  be — the  kind  they  would  have  been  if  they  had 
been  found  in  an  American  saloon.  The  three  were 
wives  of  soldiers  at  the  front  and  one  of  them  had  ac- 
cepted employment  in  a  munition  factory.  They  smoked 
cigarettes  incessantly  and  drank  their  "stout"  with  the 


AMONG  THE  TOILERS  245 

confidence  of  confirmed  topers,  and  they  were  filled  with 
wonder  that  I  should  be  there  and  yet  refuse  the  taste 
of  their  ale.  To  them  this  public  house  was  a  social 
institution,  and  they  frequented  it  with  the  same  assur- 
ance that  an  American  girl  would  visit  an  ice  cream 
parlor.  They  were  by  no  means  immoral  yet. 

"It  seems  to  me  that  the  government  would  prohibit 
the  sale  of  intoxicants  during  the  war,"  I  ventured. 

They  glanced  up  quickly  and  scrutinized  my  face. 
"Let  'em/'  they  exploded.  "They've  took  our  lads,  an' 
they've  took  our  bread,  an'  they've  took  our  sugar,  an' 
they've  turned  off  the  light.  Now  will  they  tike  our 
ale?" 

"But,  you  know,"  I  continued,  "the  lads  cannot  fight 
when  they  drink  much  ale,  and  its  manufacture  is  the 
waste  of  grain  that  should  be  used  in  bread." 

But  my  logic  was  lost  on  the  party.  They  were  deeply 
resentful  and  insisted  on  keeping  their  ale  whether  the 
war  was  won  or  not.  "We  might  as  well  'ave  the  'un 
as  to  'ave  no  liberty  left  any'ow,"  was  the  conclusion 
of  the  whole  matter. 

When  the  crowd  dwindled  somewhat  and  but  two  of 
the  girls  remained  I  asked  them  what  they  were  doing 
at  the  "pub."  One  of  them  spoke  for  the  other.  "Ye 
see,  sir,  me  man  'e's  out  there  and  'as  been  out  there 
these  months  and  I've  'ad  never  a  glimpse  of  'im.  Me 
heart  was  so  lonesome  and  I  was  terrible  afraid  'e 
wouldn't  come  back  again.  An'  what  did  the  govern- 
ment give  me  but  a  pittance  ?  I  had  to  find  friends  to 
keep  me  poor  heart  from  breakin',  an'  so  I  comes  down 


246        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

to  the  pub  in  the  evenin'  to  be  'appy.  If  I  stayed  at  'ome 
I'd  go  ravin'  mad  with  the  fright  and  the  worry." 

"Do  you  go  out  with  the  friends  you  make  here  some- 
times ?"  I  inquired  warily. 

"Ye  wouldn't  blime  me  if  we  went  to  a  show  now  and 
then,  would  ye?  I  don't  mean  no  'arm,  and  if  me 
'usband  knowed  ?e  wouldn't  blime  ,me  neyther,  'cause 
when  ?e  left  he  told  me  to  ?ave  a  good  time  and  not  be 
miserable." 

I  went  away  from  that  public  house  deeply  impressed. 
Indeed,  I  could  not  "blime"  them  if  they  sought  a  res- 
pite from  the  horror  of  a  lonely  room  somewhere,  and 
the  "pub"  was  the  only  place  where  such  a  respite  might 
be  found.  But  what  would  it  lead  to  ?  I  could  picture 
to  myself  a  thousand  ruined  girls  and  wrecked  homes, 
and  that  many  soldiers  returning  to  blasted  firesides — 
and  all  because  of  the  public  house.  And  under  my 
breath  I  cursed  England  for  a  land  without  a  conscience, 
selling  the  blood  and  hearts  of  her  people  to  a  group  of 
brewers,  some  of  whom  wrote  M.  P.  after  their  names 
and  occupied  places,  directly  or  indirectly,  in  the  gov- 
ernment itself.  In  time  of  war  these  "pubs"  should 
have  been  the  first  to  feel  the  righteous  indignation  of  an 
outraged  people  and  should  have  had  meted  out  to  them 
the  death  which  they  have  deserved  so  long  that  the 
memory  of  man  runneth  not  to  the  contrary.  For  the 
girls  to  whom  I  had  spoken  were  not  exceptions;  they 
were  representative  of  multiplied  thousands  whose  ruin 
is  being  accomplished  by  the  liquor  traffic  while  "the 
yusband  is  out  there." 


AMONG  THE  TOILERS  247 

!N"ow  I  went  to  the  "Mahogany  Bar."  It  was  once 
the  most  noted  music  house  in  the  east  end  but  has  been 
turned  into  a  social  settlement.  The  concert  hall  is  now 
an  auditorium  of  the  mission,  seated  with  rough  benches 
in  lieu  of  the  tables  and  chairs  that  once  were  used.  But 
the  trapdoors  are  still  in  the  floor.  These  doors  were 
immediately  under  the  chairs  at  the  tables  in  the  good 
old  days,  and  it  was  an  easy  matter  to  dump  a  drunken 
sailor  into  the  cellar  without  overmuch  confusion ;  once 
in  the  cellar  and  the  formality  of  robbing  him,  even  to 
the  taking  of  the  clothing  that  covered  his  body,  had 
been  completed  the  unfortunate  was  carried  by  under- 
ground passages  to  the  street  several  blocks  distant. 
When  he  awoke  in  the  morning,  if  indeed  he  ever  did 
awake,  he  knew  nothing  of  the  passage  through  which 
he  had  been  carried,  and  since  he  was  found  far  from 
the  resort  it  was  a  difficult  matter  to  fasten  suspicion 
upon  the  place.  The  superintendent  in  charge  of  "the 
Bar"  told  me  that  even  now,  since  the  resort  has  been 
converted  into  a  community  kitchen,  he  frequently  finds 
nude  sailors  lying  in  the  alley  close  by,  having  been 
robbed  during  a  spree  the  night  before. 

Then  I  went  to  "Paddy's  Goose."  This  was  in  for- 
mer days  another  noted  music  hall,  and  it  has  likewise 
been  changed  into  a  mission — it  is  a  branch  of  the 
Stepney  mission,  like  the  Mahogany  Bar.  "The 
Goose"  obtained  its  name  in  an  interesting  way.  There 
is  an  immense  metal  swan  mounted  over  the  door  on 
the  roof,  and  it  one  day  became  the  object  of  a  heated 
discussion  between  a  "bouncer"  named  Paddy  and  one 


248        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

of  his  compatriots;  Paddy  insisted  that  it  was  a  goose 
and  his  friend  was  quite  convinced  that  it  was  a  swan. 
In  the  course  of  events  Paddy  was  forced  to  vindicate 
his  position  by  force  of  fists,  and  he  did  this  to  the 
entire  satisfaction  of  the  party  of  the  second  part.  After 
that,  no  one  dared  to  deny  that  the  figure  was  that  of  a 
goose,  and  the  resort  retains  the  name  of  "Paddy's 
Goose"  to  this  day.  Here  there  are  no  trapdoors,  but 
the  patrons  had  the  convenience  of  a  draw-bridge  which, 
when  lowered,  spanned  a  court  between  the  "Goose"  and 
some  nearby  buildings;  in  this  way  the  friends  of  the 
establishment  could  escape  in  times  of  stress,  and  unfor- 
tunate sailors  could  be  carried  far  from  the  scenes  of 
their  excesses.  But  the  mighty  have  fallen !  Like  the 
Mahogany  Bar,  Paddy's  Goose  is  now  a  mission  of  the 
Methodist  Church,  and  here  is  carried  on  a  great  round 
of  war-time  activities  and  benevolent  service.  The  con- 
version of  this  place  has  been  celebrated  by  George  R. 
Sims  ("Dagonet")  as  follows: 

I  stand  awhile  to  muse  and  glance, 
Where  Jack  of  old  would  sing  and  dance. 
I  pause  and  hear  sweet  sounds  within 
The  old-time  haunt  of  shame  and  sin; 
And  gentle  voices  softly  raise 
To  God  their  songs  of  prayer  and  praise. 
Good  folks  have  turned  to  Christian  use 
The  devil's  temple— " Paddy >s  Goose. " 

"In  the  days  and  nights  when  the  drunken  sailor  of 
the  world  reeled  along  the  highway  from  the  dram- 
shops to  the  dancing-rooms,  and  from  the  dancing-rooms 


AMONG  THE  TOILERS  249 

to  the  back  alleys  and  courts  of  Artichoke  Hill,  where 
they  were  always  robbed  and  sometimes  murdered, 
'Paddy's  Goose'  was  accepted  as  a  characteristic  Brit- 
ish institution.  And  now  the  old  'White  Swan/  which 
was  'Paddy's  Goose/  is  a  meeting-house  of  the  Wes- 
leyan  East  End  Mission.  The  'Old  Mahogany  Bar/ 
which  was  almost  as  notorious  as  the  'Goose/  has  been 
converted — converted  is  a  happy  word — into  a  center  of 
religious  and  social  uplifting." 

"What  is  the  social  effect  of  the  increased  wages  the 
working  people  are  now  receiving?"  I  asked  the  super- 
intendent of  Stepney. 

"In  many  instances  it  is  good,"  he  replied.  "Fre- 
quently the  additional  money  is  expended  for  better 
quarters,  clothes,  and  food.  Some  of  the  people  have 
moved  out  of  the  old  neighborhood  and  are  taking  their 
places  in  a  better  social  environment,  while  there  is  a 
marked  improvement  in  the  matter  of  amusement  and 
recreation.  But  this  exodus  is  from  the  ranks  of  the 
more  steady  element,  and  in  nearly  all  cases  it  removes 
some  of  the  workers  at  our  missions.  It  is  gradually 
leaving  us  without  workers  and  members,  but  of  course 
we  are  glad  to  struggle  along  in  our  poverty  if  our 
people  can  be  improved." 

I  called  to  my  side  a  beautiful  little  girl  whom  I 
found  in  the  mission.  She  had  formerly  lived  near, 
but  her  parents  had  removed  to  other  sections  when  the 
prosperous  times  came  upon  them,  and  now  the  little 
girl  was  visiting  one  of  her  friends  among  the  social 
workers.  "And  how  do  you  like  your  new  home?"  I 


250        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

asked  her.  "I  don't  like  it  one  bit,"  she  emphatically 
exclaimed,  "and  I  wish  I  could  come  back  down  here. 
Why,  I  have  not  seen  a  fight  since  I  left,  and  the  Bobby 
comes  down  the  street  all  by  himself  1"  In  the  old  en- 
vironment she  had  been  accustomed  to  seeing  the  police- 
men going  about  in  pairs  for  protection. 

It  is  not  always  the  case,  however,  that  more  wages 
brings  more  comforts  to  the  home.  Often  it  only  affords 
more  means  for  enjoyment  at  the  public  house.  If  the 
worker  is  not  steady  in  his  habits,  if  he  frequents  the 
saloons  with  any  degree  of  regularity,  his  increased  pay 
nearly  always  means  more  ale  and  dissipation.  And  in 
the  end  this  will  mean  more  misery  at  home  and  the 
loss  of  his  new  prosperity. 

Everywhere  it  is  evident  that  a  great  upheaval  is  go- 
ing on  in  the  ranks  of  labor.  The  unions  are  becoming 
more  aggressive  and  the  socialists  are  exultant.  The 
workers  are  determined  that  they  will  not  go  back  to 
the  pre-war  conditions,  and  they  are  organizing  to  make 
good  their  claims.  But  many  voices  are  calling  to 
them,  and  the  course  of  the  socialistic  agitator  is  be- 
setting them.  They  should  have  a  care  lest  these  "reds" 
lead  them  astray  into  a  radicalism  that  will  prevent 
the  reforms  that  should  really  be  made  permanent. 
Once  I  clambered  up  some  rickety  stairs  to  find  the  edi- 
torial sanctum  of  a  radical  labor  journal.  Those  in 
charge  are  a  socialistic,  irreligious  horde  of  agitators 
who  are  moving  heaven  and  earth  to  make  the  workers 
demand  more  benefits  than  they  are  now  receiving  and 
to  set  in  motion  the  machinery  that  will  enable  them. 


AMONG  THE  TOILERS  251 

to  retain  such  benefits  after  the  war.  "A  Pound  a 
Day" — that  is  their  motto,  and  this  pound  a  day  for 
the  workers  is  to  be  guaranteed  by  the  state  and  paid 
through  a  system  of  conscription  of  wealth.  The  state 
must  own  all  industries,  and  then  these  industries  must 
be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  workers.  The  House  of 
Lords  is  to  be  abolished,  along  with  all  titles — an  excel- 
lent reform,  by  the  way — and  an  industrial  department 
or  chamber  of  the  government  is  to  be  created  to  take 
its  place.  The  soldiers  must  receive  a  living  wage  and 
be  given  complete  self-government,  while  wives  and  all 
others  engaged  in  household  duties  are  to  receive  regu- 
lar wages.  There  must  be  political  rights  for  all  per- 
sons regardless  of  sex  or  condition  and  the  workers  are 
to  be  closely  organized  to  prevent  another  war. 

Certainly  this  is  a  comprehensive  program,  and  the 
agitators  boldly  announce  that  this  is  but  the  beginning. 
Most  of  the  details  will  be  likely  to  end  at  this  begin- 
ning, for  I  do  not  find  that  the  movement  is  taken  seri- 
ously by  the  people  at  large  and  no  great  per  cent  of  the 
workers  themselves  are  enlisted  in  it.  The  agitators 
sought  to  succeed  through  the  organization  of  a  Sol- 
diers and  Workers  Council,  an  idea  no  doubt  borrowed 
from  the  Russian  revolutionists,  but  recent  events  in 
Russia  have  perhaps  served  to  blast  the  hopes  of  those 
who  pinned  their  faith  to  the  methods  there  adopted. 
But  out  of  it  all  there  will  come  a  more  democratic 
England.  It  is  the  day  of  the  people.  They  are  just 
being  born.  And  their  birth  is  the  greatest  need  of 
Britain  and  all  the  other  nations  of  the  earth. 


CHAPTER  XII 

A  HERITAGE  OF  HATE 

The  most  deplorable  effect  of  the  war  is  not  the  de- 
struction of  property  or  even  the  tremendous  sacrifice 
of  human  life;  it  is,  rather,  the  storm  of  bitter  hatred 
which  sweeps  the  world  and  fills  human  hearts  with  its 
poison.  It  is  perhaps  inevitable  that  in  a  struggle  so 
fierce  and  prolonged  as  the  present  conflict,  antagonism 
of  the  most  intense  degree  should  arise,  but  it  is  .some- 
what shocking  to  find  that  nations  deliberately  and  of- 
ficially seek  to  cultivate  and  instill  such  venom  into  the 
souls  of  their  people.  Most  people  seem  to  believe  that 
such  sentiments  are  not  only  unavoidable,  but  that  they 
are  also  necessary  and  salutary,  in  that  they  secure  soli- 
darity of  opinion  and  public  support  for  the  war.  It  is 
argued  that  men  will  fight  better  and  civilians  will  sac- 
rifice more  if  they  are  made  to  despise  the  people  against 
whom  their  country  battles.  One  side  of  this  argument, 
however,  seems  to  be  negatived  by  the  fact  that  the  sol- 
diers do  not  hate  nearly  so  fiercely  as  they  fight,  and 
that  the  people  at  home  possess  almost  a  monopoly  of  the 
venom.  This  is  the  theory,  however,  upon  which  Europe 
is  proceeding,  and  it  is  destined  to  bequeath  to  the  people 
a  heritage  of  hatred  which  will  adversely  affect  the  na- 

252 


A  HERITAGE  OF  HATE  253 

tional  character  for  two  or  three  generations  and  prevent 
fraternal  intercourse  between  the  people  of  the  nations 
now  pitted  against  each  other  even  after  peace  has  been 
declared. 

Germany  led  the  way  in  this  propaganda  of  hate. 
The  world  was  rightly  shocked  when  the  Germans  pub- 
lished their  "Hymn  of  Hate"  against  England,  for  it 
showed  a  side  of  the  Germanic  character  which  most  of 
us  did  not  know  existed.  And  since  that  time  it  has 
been  amazing  to  witness  the  deliberateness  with  which 
this  nation  has  encouraged  her  people,  even  the  chil- 
dren in  the  schools,  to  hate  the  foe — especially  England, 
since  England's  entrance  into  the  war  effectually 
blocked  the  plans  of  conquest  which  the  German  mili- 
tary machine  had  so  carefully  laid.  If  any  efficiency 
comes  from  it,  surely  this  nation  has  reaped  the  full 
benefit.  Men  who  were  known  around  the  world  as  the 
exponents  of  the  purest  idealism — men  like  Eucken, 
Deissman,  Harnack — at  the  beginning  of  hostilities 
threw  to  the  dogs  their  lifelong  principles  and  sent  out 
manifestoes  and  pronouncements  so  absurd  and  bitter 
that  they  amazed  the  world;  Eucken's  deliverance  on 
"The  Perfidy  of  England,"  for  example,  is  the  negation 
of  everything  this  philosopher  has  taught  in  the  course 
of  his  long  life.  The  Germans  have  sung  their  Hymn 
of  Hate,  they  have  spread  stories  of  English  surgeons 
plucking  out  the  eyes  of  the  wounded  and  prisoners,  they 
have  exulted  and  celebrated  when  their  aircraft  have 
raided  defenseless  cities  and  destroyed  hospitals,  their 
preachers  have  declared  the  will  of  God  demanded  tne 


SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

destruction  of  the  enemy,  they  have  prayed  that  their 
shell-fire  might  have  divine  direction,  they  have  declared 
that  the  man  who  cannot  put  away  pity  is  no  true 
Christian,  and  they  have  denounced  as  anti-German  the 
person  who  felt  sympathy  with  the  murdered  innocents 
on  the  Lusitania,.  All  these  things  they  have  done  while 
the  world  stood  in  amazement,  and  Germany  has  fought 
so  furiously  because  of  the  venom  that  rankled  in  the 
hearts  of  these  people. 

Germany,  with  official  sanction,  deliberately  stirred 
up  her  people  to  hate  America,  Americans,  and  every- 
thing American ;  she  stamped  "Gott  Strafe  England  und 
America"  on  her  currency,  she  draped  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  with  a  border  of  crepe,  she  printed  a  bloody 
hand  on  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  she  struck  a 
medal  in  caricature  of  President  Wilson  and  Uncle  Sam 
and  another  to  celebrate  the  sinking  of  the  Lusitania,  she 
published  a  newspaper  for  the  express  purpose  of  carry- 
ing on  a  propaganda  against  the  United  States,  and  she 
insulted  our  citizens  and  diplomatic  officials  in  her  bor- 
ders— and  all  this  while  we  were  at  peace  with  her. 
And  all  the  while  her  poets,  singers,  teachers,  philoso- 
phers, scientists,  writers,  theologians,  and  preachers  were 
breathing  forth  denunciations  so  vile  and  calumny  so 
bitter  that  they  inflamed  the  hearts  of  the  populace  with 
a  hatred  hitherto  unknown  in  the  world.  As  we  read 
these  statements,  which  are  reenforced  by  the  doctrine 
that  Germany  is  the  "kingdom  of  God  on  earth,"  that 
she  is  the  center  of  God's  plans,  that  the  Bible  is  her 
peculiar  possession,  that  the  sufferings  of  Christ  were 


A  HERITAGE  OF  HATE  255 

the  types  of  the  present  suffering  of  the  Fatherland,  and 
that  all  others  outside  Germany  constitute  the  hosts  of 
Antichrist,  we  cannot  repress  a  shudder  at  the  cold- 
bloodedness of  this  campaign  of  hatred.  (These  teach- 
ings are  reproduced  for  us  in  the  American  govern- 
ment's publication,  "Conquest  and  Kultur,"  "Ger- 
many's Madness"  by  Reich,  "Gems  of  German 
Thought,"  compiled  by  William  Archer,  and  especially 
in  "Hurrah  and  Hallelujah/'  by  Dr.  J.  P.  Bang.) 

We  must  not,  however,  imagine  that  the  Germans 
have  a  monopoly  on  hatred  and  that  the  Allied  nations 
return  good  for  evil  in  this  regard.  It  is  true  that  they 
have  not  cultivated  the  spirit  as  a  national  policy  nor 
given  official  encouragement  to  it  as  have  the  Germans, 
nor  is  their  hatred  nearly  so  venomous  as  that  of  their 
enemy,  to  judge  from  the  evidences  in  our  possession. 
Among  the  Allies  it  seems  to  spring  mainly  from  the 
lower  orders  of  society,  instead  of  from  the  upper  strata 
as  in  Germany.  And  in  spite  of  it  all  the  Entente  have 
kept  themselves  within  bounds  and  have  conducted  the 
war  according  to  the  established  usages,  while  the  Ger- 
mans have  been  guilty  of  barbarities  and  atrocities  which 
have  shocked  the  world.  Nevertheless  there  blazes  in 
Europe  the  most  intense  hatred  of  Germany,  so  wide- 
spread and  universal  that  one  who  presumes  to  question 
or  deplore  it  at  once  lays  himself  liable  to  the  suspicion 
of  disloyalty. 

On  one  occasion  I  chanced  to  voice  the  dismay 
with  which  I  beheld  such  hatred  to  a  prominent 
French  journalist  in  Paris.  "Why  should  we  not  hate 


256        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

the  Germans?'7  lie  answered  quickly.  "Consider  the 
things  they  have  done,  the  outrages  they  have  committed 
without  provocation.  Does  not  this  war  and  all  that  it 
means  justify  hatred  of  the  people  who  caused  it  ?  Wait 
until  your  American  casualty  list  begins  to  grow,  and 
then  you  will  hate  them  as  cordially  as  we.  Anyway, 
how  can  you  support  a  war  without  making  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  people  hate  the  enemy  so  heartily  that 
they  will  endure  any  sacrifice  in  order  to  exterminate 
him  ?"  I  was  of  the  opinion  that  it  were  more  prefer- 
able to  support  the  war  by  pure  patriotism  and  loyalty 
to  righteousness  and  truth.  But  they  cannot  see  the 
matter  in  this  light ;  the  doctrine  of  loving  one's  enemy 
has  been  thoroughly  repudiated  in  this  war,  and  the  im- 
precatory Psalms  are  at  last  vindicated  from  a  mass 
of  calumny  which  has  been  cast  upon  them. 

All  over  Europe  I  saw  signs  in  the  windows  of  the 
business  houses  informing  the  people  that  no  native  of 
an  enemy  country  is  in  the  employ  of  that  firm;  my 
hotel  in  London  displayed  this  placard :  "No  German, 
Austrian,  Bulgarian,  or  Turk,  whether  naturalized  or 
not,  is  in  our  service."  Names  of  streets,  parks,  towns, 
firms,  and  even  families  have  been  changed  because  of 
their  German  origin  or  sound.  There  has  been  an  agi- 
tation in  London  to  change  the  name  of  Jermyn  street 
because  its  pronunciation  reminds  one  of  "German," 
I  was  informed  that  the  all-British  manufacturers  of  a 
certain  well-known  brand  of  Egyptian  cigarettes  had 
suffered  severe  reverses  because  of  the  Turkish  sound 
of  the  name,  and  many  factories  have  been  forced  to 


"LE  VIEUX  DIEU  ALLEMAND" 

THE   FRENCH  CONCEPTION   OF  THE   GERMAN  GOD 


A  HERITAGE  OF  HATE  257 

abandon  the  names  under  which  their  products  had 
long  heen  made  and  popularized.  These  things  reached 
the  height  of  absurdity  when  the  King  of  England,  Ger- 
man to  the  core  in  his  ancestry,  went  to  the  extreme  of 
changing  the  name  of  his  house.  One  woman  advocated 
to  me  the  theory  that  all  persons  with  German  blood — 
"from  royalty  down" — should  be  interned,  while  it  is 
nothing  unusual  to  hear  men  insist  that  in  order  to  save 
food  the  armies  should  take  no  more  prisoners.  I  was 
crossing  the  Channel  one  night  and  learned  that  a  cer- 
tain passenger  was  of  German  extraction.  This  fact  I 
unwittingly  revealed  to  some  of  the  voyagers,  and  it 
instantly  created  a  sensation  on  board ;  "Good  God,"  ex- 
claimed an  officer  in  a  horrified  tone.  The  matter  was 
duly  reported  to  the  military  officials  at  Southampton, 
and  although  the  man  was  a  native-born  British  subject, 
and  although  his  credentials  were  all  in  good  shape,  he 
was  detained  at  the  port  and  was  in  custody  when  my 
train  left. 

In  Eome  the  populace  regards  one  end  of  the  Quirinal 
Palace  as  tainted,  and  I  was  told  that  the  King  would 
no  longer  occupy  it,  because  it  was  used  by  the 
Kaiser  on  the  occasion  of  his  visit  to  Victor  Emmanuel. 
There  has  even  been  a  demand  for  the  destruction  of 
the  magnificent  marble  statue  of  Goethe  which  the 
Kaiser  presented  to  Italy  and  which  stands  in  the  Park 
of  Rome,  and  this  demand  became  so  insistent  that  it 
was  necessary  to  throw  about  the  statue  a  cordon  of 
soldiers.  One  day  I  was  in  the  Vatican  galleries  look- 
ing upon  a  painting  which  depicted  a  thrilling  battle 


SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

between  the  ancient  Romans  and  an  army  of  Huns  un- 
der the  terrible  Attila,  and  when  I  remarked  upon  the 
beauty  of  the  picture  to  a  man  standing  near  he  replied : 
"They  were  the  only  people  who  knew  how  to  treat  the 
Germans." 

These  little  incidents,  and  such  things  occur  daily 
in  all  parts  of  Europe,  so  much  so  that  if  one 
kept  a  record  the  number  coming  under  his  observa- 
tion would  soon  number  into  the  thousands,  indicate  in 
a  small  way  the  deep-seated  nature  of  the  prejudice 
and  bitter  hatred  which  has  taken  hold  on  the  hearts 
of  the  people.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  declare  that  this  is 
the  most  unfortunate  phase  of  the  war — none  the  less 
unfortunate  because  unavoidable  and  necessary.  We 
can  repopulate  the  world  more  quickly  than  we  can 
eradicate  from  human  character  the  baneful  results  of 
such  sentiments.  All  over  Europe  little  children  have 
their  souls  filled  with  the  venom  of  hatred,  and  one 
grieves  to  think  of  the  effect  which  this  condition  will 
exert  on  the  budding  life. 

There  is  in  England  a  large  and  influential  Anti- 
German  Society  which  was  established  for  the  avowed 
purpose  of  carrying  on  a  relentless  crusade  against  all 
things  German — and  there  is  a  powerful  French  so- 
ciety, with  its  solemn  watchword,  "Remember,"  which 
exists  for  a  similar  purpose.  In  the  first  place,  this 
society  undertook  the  task  of  bringing  about  the  intern- 
ment of  all  the  Germans  in  the  country,  "whether  natr 
uralized  or  not."  They  were  ferreted  out  carefully  and 
were  diligently  observed  for  any  clew  upon  which  a 


A  HERITAGE  OF  HATE  259 

charge  of  suspicious  action  might  be  hung;  sometimes 
it  was  no  more  serious  than  using  the  German  language ; 
and  so  successful  was  this  campaign  that  practically  all 
who  were  in  any  way  connected  with  an  enemy  country 
are  to-day  prisoners.  Their  business  connections  have 
been  ruined,  their  properties  confiscated,  and  even  the 
German  Churches  have  been  taken  over  in  some  places. 
The  next  move  was  to  turn  the  guns  upon  the  German 
language,  and  there  arose  a  widespread  protest  against 
the  inclusion  of  this  language  in  the  curricula  of  the 
schools.  This  movement  met  with  some  opposition,  how- 
ever, and  I  encountered  a  book,  written  by  a  professor 
whose  task  was  the  teaching  of  this  language,  strongly 
opposing  the  movement. 

But  in  spite  of  this  antagonism  the  German  prisoners 
of  war  in  all  lands  of  the  Allies  are  well  treated  and 
seem  perfectly  content  with  their  lot;  they  are  indeed 
the  happiest  people  I  encountered  in  Europe.  They 
sing  as  they  are  marched  in  from  the  fronts,  and  they 
wear  the  most  genial  of  smiles  as  they  work  in  the  vari- 
ous camps  or  on  the  streets.  They  surrender  very  read- 
ily, and  none  of  those  I  encountered  displayed  the  slight- 
est desire  to  get  away  from  their  present  environment. 
The  treatment  these  prisoners  receive  is  in  marked  con- 
trast to  what  they  have  been  told  awaited  them  should 
they  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy;  it  is  also  in 
marked  contrast  to  the  treatment  accorded  by  the  Ger- 
man authorities  to  the  prisoners  who  are  so  unfortunate 
as  to  be  taken  by  them — witness  the  case  cited  by  Am- 
bassador  Gerard  wherein  certain  German  townspeople 


260         SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

were  published  as  being  unworthy  of  the  German  name 
because  they  had  "mistreated  prisoners  of  war,"  the 
"mistreatment"  being  the  act  of  giving  cold  water  to 
the  famishing  unfortunates. 

The  spirit  of  hate  in  some  quarters,  however,  resents 
this  mild  treatment  of  the  prisoners,  and  it  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  if  some  Englishmen  had  a  free  hand 
the  actual  situation  in  England  would  coincide  approx- 
imately with  the  situation  in  Germany  as  it  is  pictured 
by  the  English  press  and  believed  to  be  by  the  people. 
Recently  it  was  reported  that  a  captured  German  officer 
of  high  rank  was  taken  to  a  social  function  by  the  offi- 
cers in  command  of  the  prison  camp,  and  this  incident 
became  the  text  for  a  bitter  protest  on  the  part  of  a 
well-known  London  newspaper.  I  read  one  day  an  ad- 
vertisement in  a  paper  to  the  effect  that  a  widow  would 
rent  some  rooms  and  that  "persons  of  enemy  extraction 
were  not  excluded."  A  day  later  there  appeared  in 
another  periodical  a  furious  denunciation  of  this  ad- 
vertisement, and  this  editorial  ended  with  the  state- 
ment: "We  will  be  false  to  the  dead  if  we  ever  learn 
to  tolerate  the  unspeakable  Hun." 

This  bitterness  has  gone  to  such  an  extreme  that  the 
Anti-German  Society  has  actually  opposed  all  the  social 
agencies  which  have  sought  to  do  work  among  the  pris- 
oners. The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  carries  on  an  extensive  work 
among  them,  supplying  them  with  books,  games,  teach- 
ers, preachers,  and  sermons  printed  in  their  own  lan- 
guage. In  this  work  it  has  met  the  steady  opposition 
of  the  Anti-German  Society,  which  takes  the  position 


A  HERITAGE  OF  HATE  261 

that  nothing  should  be  done  for  the  prisoners  whatever. 
The  headquarters  for  this  work  were  transferred  to  the 
American  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  placed  in  charge  of  an 
American  secretary,  but  still  it  was  hampered  and 
hindered  in  many  ways  by  the  organized  hatred. 

The  intensity  of  this  hatred  finds  a  lurid  reflection 
through  the  press  and  sometimes  in  the  public  utter- 
ances of  well  placed  men.  Even  after  hostilities  had 
ceased  and  the  German  fleet  had  been  surrendered,  no 
less  a  person  than  Admiral  Sir  David  Beatty,  Com- 
mander-In-Chief  of  the  British  grand  fleet,  delivered 
himself  of  these  remarks  to  his  men: 

"We  know  that  the  British  sailor  has  a  large  heart  and 
a  short  memory.  Try  to  harden  the  heart  and  lengthen  the 
memory.  And  remember,  the  enemy  which  you  are  looking 
after  is  a  despicable  beast,  neither  more  nor  less.  He  is  not 
worthy  of  the  life  of  one  blue  jacket  in  the  grand  fleet." 

Surely  this  is  as  Hunnish  a  sentiment  as  anything  we 
have  attributed  to  the  German. 

On  one  occasion  a  German  prisoner,  in  reply  to  a 
taunt,  spat  at  an  ex-soldier  who  had  been  wounded ;  the 
Englishman  at  once  knocked  down  the  prisoner,  for 
which  offense  he  was  fined  four  shillings.  Relative  to 
this  case  a  certain  journal  published  the  following  edi- 
torial : 

"Few  more  humiliating  pictures  have  been  presented 
to  the  mind's  eye  than  that  of  a  decent  German-hating 
Englishman  being  fined  and  lectured  by  an  English 
magistrate.  I  don't  know  the  name  of  the  Chairman 
of  the  Long  Ashton  Bench  who  committed  this  offense. 


SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

If  I  did  I  would  print  it  in  the  biggest  type  I  could 
find,  and  in  spite  of  the  D.  O.  R.  A.  and  every  other 
influence  which  prevents  honest  men  expressing  their 
opinions,  I  would  denounce  him  from  one  end  of  the 
country  to  the  other.  And  at  the  same  time  I  would 
write  the  name  of  the  prisoner  in  letters  of  gold.  For 
Charles  Ridge  is  a  hero.  He  knocked  down  a  dirty 
German  prisoner  who  spat  at  him  and  said,  'If  a  Ger- 
man spits  at  me  again  I  shall  knock  him  down  again,' 
Bravo,  Charles  Ridge !  We  are  proud  of  you. 

"Every  one  has  read  with  burning  shame  the  case  of 
Charles  Ridge.  He  is  lame ;  he  has  served  in  the  Mer- 
cantile Marine,  in  the  Navy,  in  the  Army.  When  he 
was  at  Ostend  early  in  the  war  he  saw  many  mutilated 
Belgian  women.  He  remembers,  and  he  hates.  And 
so  when  he  saw  a  group  of  our  pampered  German  pris- 
oners walking  along  a  country  road  singing  and  smok- 
ing, his  spirit  burned  within  him.  He  asked  the  soldier 
in  charge  of  these  Huns  if  any  of  them  spoke  English, 
and  of  one  who  could  he  inquired  whether  he  remem- 
bered the  Lusitania.  The  answer  of  the  swine  was  to 
spit  in  his  face.  And  promptly  Charles  Ridge  knocked 
him  down.  The  dirty  Hun  can  do  as  he  pleases;  the 
honest  Englishman  who  has  fought  and  has  been  lamed 
fighting,  is  expected  to  turn  the  other  cheek.  Ridge 
would  have  been  unworthy  of  his  fine  record,  of  his 
British  manhood,  if  he  had  failed  to  reply  to  the  insult. 
Thank  God,  he  did  not  fail ! 

"So  let  us  pay  tribute  to  the  manliness  of  Charles 
Ri3ge,  and  do  so  by  remembering  and  hating.  Nearly 


A  HERITAGE  OF  HATE  263 

four  years  of  war  with  a  bestial  and  despicable  foe,  and 
we  do  not  yet  hate  him  properly.  I  should  like  to  see 
every  man  who  hates  Germany  and  the  Germans — yes, 
and  every  woman,  too,  for  the  women  are  the  best  haters 
of  the  Hun — joined  together  in  solemn  league  and  cov- 
enant to  keep  this  hate  for  the  Hun  alive  so  long  as  they 
have  breath  in. their  bodies  and  then  to  hand  on  the 
legacy  of  hate  to  their  children.  A  League  of  Hate — 
that  is  what  we  want. 

"In  the  face  of  infamies  unmentionable,  with  the 
knowledge  of  foul  murders  by  sea  and  land,  in  the  face 
of  accumulated  evidence  and  piled-up  horrors,  there  are 
those  who  to-morrow  would  make  friends  with  the  Hun 
and  take  his  blood-stained  hand  in  the  grasp  of  amity. 
In  the  name  of  true  patriotism,  let  us  exalt  the  deed  of 
Charles  Ridge.  Remember — and  Hate!" 

When  Count  Mirbach,  the  German  Ambassador  to 
Russia,  was  assassinated  a  full  column  leading  editorial 
in  a  prominent  London  daily  contained  such  sections  as 
these : 

"We  hope  his  fate  will  be  shared  by  the  rest  of  the 
criminals  who  have  lied,  murdered,  oppressed,  and  vio- 
lated at  the  command  of  the  German  Emperor.  There 
are  in  truth  but  two  appropriate  endings  for  these  peo- 
ple. One  is  the  assassin's  knife;  the  other  the  hang- 
man's rope.  We  should  prefer,  as  a  matter  of  taste,  that 
justice  in  the  case  of  these  men  should  take  an  orderly 
and  decent  course;  but  the  main  thing  is  that  justice 
should  be  done. 


264        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

"We  can  readily  imagine  that  these  remarks  will 
cause  some  pain  in  certain  English  circles,  in  which  a 
Prussian  aristocrat  may  still  be  regarded  as  'almost  an 
English  boy.'  We  can  quite  understand  the  shock  the 
Foreign  Office  mind  experiences  when  approval  is 
openly  expressed  of  the  removal  of  an  Ambassador  and 
a  Count  to  boot. 

"But  English  people,  we  believe,  will  feel  no  such 
emotion  of  outraged  propriety.  They  will  see  in  Mir- 
bach's  fate  justice  and  nothing  more. 

"The  only  hopeful  kind  of  peace  is  one  of  which  the 
essential  preliminary  is  the  punishment  of  men  like 
Mirbach,  either  by  the  rough  justice  of  assassination  or 
the  more  ordered  operation  of  a  revolutionary  tribunal. 
And  the  German  people,  we  think,  should  be  told  plainly 
what  is  expected  of  them  if  they  are  ever  to  regain  their 
place  in  the  company  of  civilized  nations." 

The  following  article  from  the  London  Evening 
Standard  will  speak  for  itself: 

"It  fills  us  with  amazement  to  read  that,  after  nearly 
four  years  of  war  with  Germany,  any  body  of  British 
subjects  should  be  ready  to  address  to  Germans  such  a 
communication  as  the  appeal  of  the  Order  of  St.  John 
of  Jerusalem  to  the  Prussian  Order  of  St.  John. 

"No  doubt  this  thing  has  been  done  with  the  worthiest 
motives.  It  is  an  attempt  to  restore  and  maintain  the 
'highest  standard  of  Christian  generosity,  charity, 
mercy,  and  honor'  in  the  conduct  of  the  war.  But  the 
princely  and  noble  members  of  the  Order  of  St.  John 


A  HERITAGE  OF  HATE  265 

hardly  seem  to  realize  what  is  implied  in  this  respect- 
fully worded  and  even  humble  appeal  to  the  'Most  Il- 
lustrious Grand  Master  of  the  Bailiwick  of  Branden- 
burg and  the  Knights  of  Justice,  Knights  of  Honour, 
the  other  Members  of  the  Johanniter  Order.' 

"Who  are  these  Knights  of  Justice  and  Knights  of 
Honour  of  the  Prussian  Order  of  St.  John  ?  They  are 
members  of  the  Prussian  aristocracy.  They  are  pre- 
cisely the  men  who  plotted  this  war,  who  prepared  for 
it  with  an  organized  hypocrisy  such  as  the  world  has 
never  seen  before,  and  who  have  carried  it  on  with  cool, 
deliberate,  and  appalling  brutality.  The  Protector  of 
the  Prussian  Order  of  St.  John  is  the  Kaiser  himself; 
its  Grand  Master  is  a  Prussian  notable ;  its  knights  are 
the  same  kind  of  people  who  have  bombed  our  towns, 
sunk  our  ships,  murdered  our  women  and  children,  or- 
dered massacres,  burnings  and  rapings  in  France,  Bel- 
gium, Serbia,  Poland  and  Rumania,  made  war  on  our 
wounded,  starved  our  prisoners,  and — to  cut  short  the 
catalogue — been  guilty  of  every  kind  of  crime  and 
meanness  which  the  most  perverted  imagination  can  con- 
ceive and  the  bloodiest  hand  can  carry  out. 

"These  people  are  rightly  looked  on  by  the  average 
Briton  as  criminals  of  the  lowest  type.  Ordinary  peo- 
ple, who  have  given  their  dearest  for  this  crusade  against 
Germany,  regard  these  princely  robbers  and  murderers 
as  occupying  precisely  the  same  moral  level  as  the  late 
Charles  Peace  and  Dr.  Crippen.  They  regard  them  as 
more  culpable  than  the  brutal  German  private  who  kills 


266        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

young  girls  and  twirls  babies  on  his  bayonet.  The  pri- 
vate is  no  doubt  a  willing  pupil  in  blackguardism,  but 
he  is  only  a  pupil ;  the  true  inspiration  in  f rightf ulness 
conies  from  above. 

"Yet  these  Prussian  blackguards  are  addressed  as  if 
they  were  civilized  gentlemen — the  social  and  moral 
equals  of  our  own  Princes  and  Nobles.  It  is  gently 
hinted  that  Germany  may  have  been  led  into  some  small 
errors  of  taste  in  her  waging  of  war.  'Certain  bellig- 
erent acts/  say  the  petitioners — for  they  occupy  that 
position — 'appear  to  us  to  be  opposed  to  the  declara- 
tions, maxims,  and  professions  of  our  ancient  and  illus- 
trious Order  of  Christian  Chivalry.'  The  British  mem- 
bers 'beg'  the  'noble'  German  members  to  exercise  their 
influence  with  'His  Imperial  Majesty  the  German  Em- 
peror,' and  they  'regret'  to  record  their  opinion  that  the 
Imperial  Government  has  'not  always  acted  up  to  the 
ideals  and  laws  of  our  Christian  brotherhood.'  But  they 
'appeal  with  confidence'  to  the  'eminent  members'  in 
Germany  to  unite  in  upholding  the  ideals  of  the  Order. 

"How,  in  the  name  of  common  sense,  can  we  expect 
the  German  people  to  repudiate,  as  beyond  the  pale  of 
decency,  their  rulers,  when  our  own  Notables  treat  them 
as  if  they  were  men  of  honor?" 

It  is  a  deplorable  state  into  which  the  world  has 
drifted.  To  move  in  such  an  atmosphere  is  decidedly 
depressing  and  it  is  gradually  robbing  the  people  of 
their  finer  sensibilities.  Profanity  springs  more  easily 
to  their  lips  when  venom  rankles  in  the  breast.  We 


A  HERITAGE  OF  HATE  267 

should  pray  to  be  delivered  from  it,  even  though  in  the 
present  crisis,  in  view  of  the  unspeakable  barbarities 
committed  by  the  enemy,  it  is  perhaps  as  justifiable  as 
such  sentiments  can  ever  be. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE    CITIES    OF    HOEKIBLE    NIGHTS 

"This  war  would  be  a  jolly  show  if  there  were  no 
nights/'  said  an  officer  on  the  Western  front;  and  the 
people  back  at  home  might  have  said,  "And  we  could 
keep  our  spirits  up  much  better  if  it  were  always  day- 
time." Nearly  all  the  cities  of  Europe  during  the 
war  were  cities  of  horrible  nights.  There  were  no 
lights,  the  streets  were  enveloped  in  dismal  darkness, 
through  the  gloom  taxicabs  dashed  here  and  there,  the 
throngs  moved  along  like  specters  through  a  mist,  and 
the  courtesans  flocked  out  by  thousands  to  follow  their 
uninterrupted  solicitations.  At  nightfall  every  window 
and  door  must  be  closed  and  every  curtain  drawn,  for 
severe  penalties  were  visited  on  those  who  allowed  beams 
of  light  to  escape  from  store  or  apartment.  In  the  the- 
aters and  cafes  there  were  scenes  of  riotous  jollity  and 
brilliancy,  but  on  the  streets  all  was  darkness  and  gloom. 
The  situation  "got  on  my  nerves,"  for  the  facts  and  the 
agencies  of  darkness  so  constantly  confronted  became 
decidedly  depressing. 

But  the  real  horror  of  the  nights  was  constituted  by 
what  did  and  what  might  happen  while  they  spread 
blackness  over  the  world.  Then  villainy  of  the  most 

268 


CITIES  OF  HORRIBLE  NIGHTS          269 

unspeakable  kind  was  enacted,  then  men  and  women 
sacrificed  their  honor,  their  souls,  their  homes — and  the 
happy  homes  of  other  people  also — then  the  soldiers 
from  overseas  were  set  upon  by  harpies  and  tricksters, 
and  then  the  enemy  avions  came  to  spread  death  among 
helpless  women  and  little  children.  The  most  terrible 
experiences  of  the  war,  at  home  and  on  the  fronts,  in 
its  actual  effects,  occurred  at  night. 

I  have  been  in  the  center  of  more  than  forty  air 
raids,  and  this  number  does  not  include  hundreds  of 
air  battles  which  have  taken  place  above  my  head  on 
the  front  or  the  large  number  which  I  have  witnessed 
from  a  distance,  and  of  them  all  only  two  occurred  in 
the  light  of  day.  The  first  one  I  ever  experienced  was 
in  London  at  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  this  was 
the  largest  day-time  raid  which  ever  reached  the  English 
capital;  the  last  raid  I  ever  saw  in  London  began  at 
eleven  o'clock  in  the  night  and  passed  at  three  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  and  this  was  the  worst  raid  ever  experi- 
enced by  any  city,  either  in  the  day  or  night. 

When  the  Boche  raiders  came  to  London  that  July 
morning  I  had  taken  a  taxicab  and  was  being  driven  to 
the  Liverpool  Street  station.  The  taxicab  was  directly 
in  front  of  the  great  General  Post  Office,  and  suddenly 
there  was  a  crashing  roar  more  thunderous  than  any- 
thing I  had  ever  heard  before.  The  machine  careened 
and  plunged  about  in  the  street  until  it  brought  up  on 
its  side  against  a  nearby  pole,  the  earth  trembled  as  if 
in  the  grasp  of  a  mighty  earthquake,  and  the  air  was 
suddenly  full  of  flying  debris — stone,  wood,  and  glass. 


270        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

I  pulled  myself  together  and  glanced  through  the  door 
of  the  taxicab  and  understood  that  the  General  Post 
Office  had  been  struck  by  a  bomb  dropped  from  an  en- 
emy aircraft.  I  crawled  out  of  the  damaged  automobile 
and,  looking  into  the  sky,  witnessed  the  greatest  spec- 
tacle of  its  kind  ever  enacted  since  the  world  began — one 
which  a  few  months  before  belonged  wholly  in  the 
realm  of  dreams;  it  was  the  world's  greatest  battle  in 
the  sky. 

I  saw  a  flotilla  of  great  enemy  airships  advance  over 
the  unprotected  city  in  battle  formation,  spread  out  like 
a  mighty  fan,  or  a  flock  of  geese  flying  south  in  the  fall, 
led  by  the  conspicuous  machine  of  the  commander,  with 
the  bomb  carriers  protected  in  the  center  of  the  V. 
They  were  flying  very  low  and  their  speed  seemed  lei- 
surely enough,  although  they  must  have  been  moving 
at  the  speed  of  at  least  seventy-five  miles  an  hour.  Their 
lines  were  straight  and  it  was  apparent  that  they  were 
under  a  strict  discipline,  evidently  in  anticipation  of 
an  attack  from  the  British  machines.  The  whirr  of 
the  engines  could  be  distinctly  heard;  occasionally  the 
sharp,  clear  rattle  of  a  machine  gun  would  pierce  the 
morning  air,  then  the  deep  boom  of  an  anti-aircraft 
defense  gun  from  the  street,  and  a  crashing  roar  of  a 
bursting  bomb  dropped  by  the  Hun.  It  was  so  sudden, 
so  startling,  so  magnificent,  that  I  stood  riveted  to  the 
spot  and  scarcely  comprehended  what  was  taking  place 
above  and  around  me. 

Now  the  British  planes  ascended.  They  circled  and 
swept  gracefully  until  they  had  attained  the  proper  alti- 


CITIES  OF  HORRIBLE  NIGHTS         271 

tilde,  and  then  without  the  slightest  hesitancy  drove 
full  at  the  foe.  So  fierce  was  the  onslaught  that  they 
broke  his  formation,  and  then  the  multitude  of  great 
battleships  of  the  air  mingled  in  an  indiscriminate  mass. 
Friend  could  not  be  distinguished  from  foe  as  they  bat- 
tled in  the  clouds  above  my  head.  It  would  be  vain  to 
attempt  an  adequate  description  of  this  struggle,  or  to 
enable  the  average  person  to  understand  its  grandeur 
or  the  awe  with  which  a  witness  beheld  it.  They  circled 
and  dashed  here  and  there  madly,  they  maneuvered  for 
position,  they  struggled  with  deadly  fury.  It  was  a 
floating  and  whirling  mass  of  demons  fighting  furiously 
in  the  sky.  Twice  I  saw  machines  swerve  to  one  side 
from  the  group,  reel  unsteadily  in  the  air  for  a  moment, 
and  then  plunge  downward,  turning  over  and  over  as 
the  pilots  endeavored  to  regain  control.  And  all  the 
while  the  engines  whirred,  the  machine  guns  rattled, 
the  defense  guns  roared,  and  the  bombs  came  streaking 
through  the  air  to  fall  upon  the  heads  of  the  helpless 
women  and  children  on  the  streets  and  to  burst  with  a 
thunderous  crash,  spreading  death  and  destruction 
everywhere. 

I  was  stunned  by  sentiments  of  wonder,  pity,  hatred, 
and  fear ;  I  did  not  know  how  to  move  or  where.  Slowly 
I  made  my  way  through  the  crowd  surrounding  a 
wrecked  building ;  the  devastation  was  terrible,  fire  was 
spreading,  the  dead  were  being  removed,  and  the 
wounded  were  crying  for  help.  Over  in  Piccadilly  the 
street  was  littered  with  broken  glass  and  bits  of  stone, 
scattered  by  the  falling  shrapnel.  Near  the  gate  of  St. 


SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

Paul's  lay  a  great  unexploded  bomb,  closely  guarded  by 
the  police  until  soldiers  should  come  and  remove  it.  I 
came  to  a  little  church  which  had  been  utterly  de- 
stroyed ;  a  young  girl  had  been  arranging  flowers  on  the 
altar  for  the  service  on  the  following  day  when  the 
deadly  missile  came  crashing  through  the  roof — and 
there  lay  her  mangled  body  in  the  wreckage  of  the 
sacred  altar  she  loved.  Here  was  a  row  of  flats  housing 
many  families,  three  stories  high;  a  bomb  had  struck 
near  the  corner  on  the  roof  and  had  eaten  its  way  to 
the  ground,  leaving  a  gaping  wound  through  which  one 
could  see  the  interior  of  each  apartment.  Down  in  the 
east  end  the  havoc  was  frightful ;  the  east  always  suffered 
from  the  raids,  because  the  foe  followed  the  course  of 
the  Thames  in  approaching  London  and  naturally  aimed 
at  the  docks  and  the  Tower  and  Bridge,  which  presented 
a  visible  target  to  the  raiders;  this  is  why  the  poor 
people  who  inhabit  this  end  of  the  city  suffered  so  in- 
tensely from  these  attacks.  In  front  of  the  Tower  gate 
was  a  gaping  hole  in  the  stone  street  deep  enough  to 
bury  a  piano,  some  of  the  great  iron  pickets  in  the  fence 
had  been  cut  in  two  by  the  flying  shrapnel,  all  of  the 
windows  in  many  blocks  were  broken,  and  here  and 
there  the  little  pools  of  blood  upon  the  pavement  told 
a  sadder  story.  Some  school  children  had  been  passing 
that  way — if  the  enemy  had  known  of  it  he  would  doubt- 
less have  rubbed  his  hands  in  glee,  for  his  record  shows 
that  he  has  a  special  predilection  for  children ! 

When  the  papers  reached  the  streets  they  carried 
many  columns  about  the  great  air-raid,  but  the  censor 


CITIES  OF  HORRIBLE  NIGHTS 

had  been  busy.  ~No  definite  place  could  be  mentioned 
in  the  stories  lest  the  papers  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
enemy  and  enable  him  to  tell  what  section  of  London 
he  was  over,  "A  great  public  building  had  been 
wrecked" — but  they  dare  not  say  it  was  the  General 
Post  Office.  "A  bomb  fell  in  the  yard  of  a  prominent 
church,"  but  the  name  of  the  cathedral  was  carefully 
shielded.  The  power  of  the  censor  was  strikingly  seen 
when  I  read  these  accounts  after  witnessing  the  actual 
battle  and  personally  visiting  the  destroyed  sections. 
"No  pictures  must  be  made  until  the  official  photographer 
sees  fit  to  make  them !  Standing  near  me  on  East  Com- 
mercial street  was  a  man  with  a  large  and  fancifully 
carved  cigarette  holder,  and  when  he  fingered  it  loosely 
he  was  at  once  in  the  toils  of  the  police ;  "  'Ow  do  I 
know  but  it's  a  thing  to  tike  pictures  with  as  you've 
got  ?"  was  the  explanation  which  was  given  for  its  con- 
fiscation. And  the  official  reports  issued  by  the  war 
office!  They  destroyed  in  me  all  confidence  in  official 
reports  thereafter.  It  was  announced  that  there  were 
twenty-two  enemy  machines,  and  on  the  same  page  of  a 
paper  which  published  the  report  was  a  remarkable 
photograph  made  from  the  roof  of  a  building  showing 
more  than  sixty !  The  officials  reported  that  the  British 
had  sustained  no  injury  whatever,  and  that  evening  in 
a  hotel  I  met  one  of  the  aviators  engaged  who  was  weep- 
ing his  heart  out  because  the  machine  driven  by  his 
dearest  friend  had  been  brought  down  by  shrapnel  from 
a  defense  gun  shell  and  both  occupants  instantly 
killed.  It  was  the  usual  thing  after  the  raid,  and  after 


274        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

every  raid,  to  hear  people  everywhere  making  prophe- 
cies concerning  the  forthcoming  official  report  and  its 
attempt  to  underestimate  the  damage  done.  But  all  of 
this  was  taken  good-naturedly  "by  the  populace,  since  the 
people  appreciated  the  necessity  of  preserving  morale 
and  courage  and  keeping  all  gratifying  information 
from  the  enemy. 

The  greatest  raid  of  all  occurred  on  the  night  of 
Whit  Sunday,  the  anniversary  of  Pentecost ;  at  the  close 
of  the  day  when  all  England  celebrated  the  descent  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  on  the  Apostles  came  the  air  Huns  to 
send  death  down  upon  sleeping  people ;  it  was  a  Pente- 
cost of  frightfulness  for  suffering  London.  I  had  just 
retired  and  extinguished  my  light  when  the  alarm  came, 
given  by  bursting  "maroons,"  and  a  friend  entered  to 
invite  me  out  into  the  hall,  where  a  little  group  had 
already  assembled ;  his  invitation  was  accepted,  because 
the  large  windows  in  each  of  the  rooms  of  my  suite  con- 
stituted a  very  great  menace.  We  sat  upon  the  steps 
for  more  than  three  hours  during  the  world's  greatest 
air  attack. 

Twenty  minutes  after  the  first  alarm  a  deep  booming 
in  the  distance  proved  that  the  enemy  had  broken 
through  the  coast  barrage  and  was  proceeding  to  Lon- 
don, and  for  a  few  minutes  we  could  mark  his  progress 
by  the  advancing  roar.  Then  there  was  a  sudden  thun- 
dering near  at  hand  as  the  guns  of  London  came  into 
action  and  began  throwing  a  curtain  of  fire  in  the  path 
of  the  Gotha  fleet.  ]$To  one  of  our  party  spoke,  for  all 
were  enthralled  with  interest  as  we  listened  to  the  great 


CITIES  OF  HORRIBLE  NIGHTS         275 


batteries  striving  so  hotly  for  our  protection. 
there  came  a  crash  so  thunderous  that  all  the  others  were 
surpassed  in  volume,  the  building  trembled  from  the 
force  of  the  concussion,  the  windows  began  the  rattle 
that  scarcely  ceased  until  the  raiders  had  gone,  one  of 
the  women  gave  a  frightened  little  scream  and  stopped 
her  ears  with  her  hands  —  the  foe  was  upon  us  and  his 
first  torpedo  had  scored  a  direct  hit. 

"Now  the  streets  were  silent  but  the  skies  were  full 
of  din.  Taxicabs  no  longer  went  honking  about,  motor 
busses  had  ceased  their  rumbling,  and  the  crowds  did 
not  create  their  customary  hubbub,  for  the  avenues  were 
deserted.  But  above  our  heads  we  could  hear  the  inter- 
mittent whirring  of  the  peculiar  German  engine,  the 
sharp,  clear  rattle  of  machine  guns,  and  the  sullen  burst- 
ing of  British  shells  ;  while  ever  and  anon  the  very  earth 
would  stagger  as  a  missile  well  placed  wrought  its  havoc. 

Twice  I  went  to  the  door  and  surveyed  the  scene 
above.  It  was  wonderful!  A  score  of  mighty  search- 
lights were  stabbing  the  darkness  and  sweeping  the 
heavens  while  the  lovely  star-shells  hanging  here  and 
there  illuminated  the  skies.  There  were  just  enough 
clouds  to  make  a  background  for  the  bursting  shells,  and 
against  them  the  lurid  and  devilish  flashes  were  con- 
stantly playing.  Here  and  there  one  caught  momentary 
glimpses  of  an  enemy  air  craft,  as  it  emerged  from  or 
disappeared  behind  a  cloud,  or  as  it  was  caught  in  the 
sweep  of  a  searchlight.  Once  three  great  rays  focussed 
on  one  of  the  machines,  and  its  maneuvers  were  remark- 
able ;  it  dashed  upwards  and  then  turned  downward,  it 


276        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

swept  from  side  to  side,  it  plunged  and  careened  in  des- 
perate attempts  to  escape  the  revealing  light,  and  all 
the  while  hundreds  of  shells  were  screaming  towards  it. 
I  saw  the  plane  reel  unsteadily  in  the  air  for  a  moment 
and  then  dip  downward  suddenly,  flames  shot  up  and 
enveloped  it,  the  pilot  leaped  away  into  the  air,  to  fall 
two  miles  and  strike  upon  the  London  pavement,  while 
the  burning  battleship  of  the  sky  came  down  a  ruined 
mass.  It  was  a  remarkable  scene,  but  I  was  haunted 
for  weeks  by  the  memory  of  that  man  leaping  free  from 
his  machine. 

This  continued  for  more  than  three  hours,  as  we  sat 
on  the  steps  and  waited  until  the  trumpets  of  the  Boy 
Scouts  sounded  "All  Clear."  There  was  no  use  in  seek- 
ing a  better  refuge;  the  best  protection  was  always  to 
remain  at  home  and  be  quiet,  for  any  good  wall  would 
resist  shrapnel  bits  and  none  of  them  could  protect  their 
occupants  in  the  event  of  a  direct  hit.  The  tubes  were 
safe  enough  if  one  dared  to  go  through  the  streets  to 
reach  them,  but  comparatively  few  people  sought  their 
shelter.  It  fell  to  my  lot  to  carry  into  the  subway  dur- 
ing one  raid  a  lady  who  fainted  before  my  door,  and 
then  I  understood  the  prejudice  against  the  places  which 
kept  the  "better  element"  away.  It  was  filled  with  a 
motley  crowd  of  Jews  and  foreigners,  although  it  was 
in  the  west  end  of  London.  Children  lay  about  the 
floor  on  dirty  and  tattered  blankets,  filthy  and  disrep- 
utable-looking specimens  of  humanity  thronged  the 
place,  and  the  odor  was  intolerable.  Most  people  pre- 
ferred the  bombs  of  the  Boche  to  the  germs  of  the  under- 


CITIES  OF  HORRIBLE  NIGHTS         277 

ground.  This  situation  in  the  tubes  was  immortalized 
by  a  popular  painting  in  which  the  artist  depicted  the 
crowds  in  the  Elephant  and  Castle  station  during  an  air- 
raid in  a  most  realistic  manner. 

As  we  sat  upon  the  steps  no  fear  was  visible  in  our 
little  company,  even  though  one  young  lady  was  so 
nervous  that  she  must  needs  rest  her  head  on  her  pro- 
tector's knee.  There  were  wine  and  cigarettes  in  abun- 
dance and  one  friend  produced  some  biscuits ;  one  of  the 
maids  read  her  book  and  made  scarcely  a  comment.  The 
conversation  dwelt  on  other  things  for  the  most  part 
and  concerned  the  air-raid  only  when  a  bomb  fell  un- 
usually near  or  some  one  returned  from  the  door  with  a 
new  report.  Nowhere  in  Europe,  be  it  said,  did  I  ever 
see  any  noticeable  fear  on  the  part  of  the  people,  save 
in  one  or  two  detached  instances  in  which  single  indi- 
viduals weretconcerned. 

After  the  raid  we  went  out  to  observe  the  effects.  It 
seemed  that  half  of  London  must  have  been  razed  by 
the  terrible  bombardment,  yet  it  required  diligent 
search  to  find  any  damage  that  had  been  done.  A  few 
poor  houses  destroyed,  several  women  and  children 
killed — that  was  all.  But  one  aerial  torpedo  wrought 
an  unbelievable  havoc.  It  fell  in  Maida  Vale  and 
scored  a  direct  hit  on  a  block  of  stone  mansions,  three 
or  four  stories  in  height.  Eive  of  these  were  leveled 
as  completely  as  if  house  wreckers  had  been  at  work,  the 
top  stories  of  three  houses  across  the  street  were  knocked 
down  and  these  houses  were  set  on  fire,  and  all  the 
buildings  in  the'  block,  on  both  sides  of  the  street,  about 


278        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

fifty  of  them,  were  so  injured  as  to  be  rendered  unin- 
habitable. The  residents  were  evacuated,  the  block  was 
boarded  in  and  placed  under  guard,  and  there  it  remains 
until  this  day.  Such  was  the  force  of  one  torpedo. 

I  had  often  wondered  how  the  people  acted  and  felt 
during  an  air-raid.  They  were  perfectly  helpless,  of 
course,  and  there  was  little  to  be  done  save  to  seek  shel- 
ter in  the  most  secure  spot.  Hundreds  of  them  came 
flocking  out  to  observe,  and  while  bombs  rained  down 
the  people  gazed  curiously  and  the  school  children,  if 
the  raid  was  in  day  time,  stood  at  "attention"  and  sang 
"Rule  Britannia."  I  saw  little  terror  on  the  streets  dur- 
ing any  raid  and  heard  little  comment  to  indicate  that 
such  warfare  spread  any  noticeable  degree  of  panic 
among  the  people.  Mainly  the  people  kept  inside  and 
trusted  to  Providence;  the  curious  flocked  to  the  street 
to  observe  "the  show."  Perhaps  the  greatest  danger  is 
not  from  the  descending  bombs  of  the  foe;  rather  is  it 
from  the  flying  shrapnel  of  the  friend.  Each  shell  sent 
against  the  enemy  must  come  down  somewhere,  and  the 
falling  pieces  of  steel  destroy  windows  and  injure  peo- 
ple over  a  wide  area. 

The  wonderfully  preserved  morale  of  the  people  indi- 
cated to  me  the  fact  that  Germany  was  defeating  her 
own  purpose  by  such  barbarous  methods  of  murdering 
the  helpless  non-combatants  in  undefended  cities.  (But 
of  course  Germany  does  not  regard  London  as  unde- 
fended, since  she  excused  herself  for  these  attacks  by 
issuing  a  manifesto  declaring  that  London  was  no  longer 
unfortified,  since  she  had  mounted  anti-aircraft  defense 


CITIES  OF  HORRIBLE  NIGHTS         279 

guns!)  Her  purpose  was  the  same  as  that  back  of  the 
unspeakable  ruthlessness  which  she  has  practiced  and 
encouraged  in  Belgium,  France,  Poland,  Serbia,  Ru- 
mania, Armenia,  and  everywhere  else  she  has  planted 
her  hoof — to  terrorize  the  people  and  break  their  spirits 
to  such  a  degree  that  they  will  demand  peace.  But  the 
actual  result  was  to  anger  the  people  and  make  them 
more  determined  in  their  conviction  that  such  a  foe 
must  be  completely  crushed.  Hence  nothing  that  Ger- 
many could  have  done  would  have  had  such  a  tendency 
to  unify  the  sentiment  of  the  nation.  Ruthlessness  run- 
ning amuck  enabled  Great  Britain  to  raise  by  the  vol- 
unteer system  a  mighty  army,  and  it  steadily  and  surely 
defeated  its  own  aim. 

The  air-raids  always  gave  a  new  impetus  to  the  pop- 
ular movement  for  reprisals,  until  they  were  under- 
taken. The  king  came  out  upon  the  street  to  view  the  dev- 
astation of  one  raid,  and  as  he  stood  gazing  upon  a 
wrecked  building  he  remarked,  "I  wish  that  those  who 
oppose  reprisals  could  witness  this  scene."  The  king  fa- 
vored a  reprisal  policy,  but  of  course  the  will  of  his  maj- 
esty has  not  the  least  influence  in  the  conduct  of  affairs 
in  Great  Britain !  England  for  a  long  time  held  herself 
aloof  from  such  methods,  under  the  pressure  of  a  senti- 
ment molded  and  led  by  such  men  as  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  and  Dr.  Sanday  of  Oxford.  The  argument 
was  that  the  English  skirts  were  clear  and  must  be  kept 
so,  and  the  fact  that  Germany  so  far  forgot  herself  as 
to  violate  international  precedent  and  outrage  righteous 
conceptions  by  slaughtering  the  innocents  would  not 


280        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

justify  England  in  adopting  the  same  tactics.  This  was 
a  noble  stand  to  be  taken  by  a  nation  which  went  to 
war  in  defense  of  a  weaker  power  and  a  solemn  treaty, 
and  if  it  had  been  maintained  until  the  end  of  the  war 
it  would  have  cleared  the  English  name  of  many  a  blot 
which  her  past  actions  have  placed  upon  it. 

In  the  matter  of  air  raids  the  cities  of  France  nat- 
urally suffered  more  than  the  cities  of  England ;  I  was 
in  Paris  when  the  avions  came  over  eleven  successive 
nights,  while  at  the  same  time  the  "gros  Bertha"  was 
bombarding  the  beautiful  capital  of  the  French  and  the 
deep  imprecations  of  the  guns  thundering  at  the  gates 
could  be  heard  constantly.  Everywhere  in  Paris  and  in 
other  French  towns  there  were  signs  pointing  to  the 
nearby  "Abris  contre  bombardment,"  and  these  "caves" 
were  designated  by  posters  stating  the  number  of  per- 
sons who  could  take  refuge  there  in  the  event  of  an 
attack.  The  barrage  north  of  Paris  and  around  the  city 
was  quite  efficient,  but  anti-aircraft  guns  were  always 
surprisingly  helpless  in  beating  off  an  attack  or  keeping 
the  foe  behind  his  own  lines.  I  have  seen  flotillas  of 
German  airships  sail  calmly  on  through  a  stream  of 
shells  sweeping  their  path  so  thoroughly  that  the  ex- 
plosions left  patches  of  smoke  forming  practically  solid 
lines  across  the  sky,  and  it  was  not  at  all  unusual  to 
see  the  airmen  go  above  a  barrage,  sailing  so  high  that 
they  absolutely  disappeared  in  the  blue  heavens. 

On  one  occasion  I  went  into  Paris  for  the  express 
purpose  of  associating  with  the  people  in  an  hour  of 
supreme  crisis.  The  city  was  being  bombarded  during 


CITIES  OF  HORRIBLE  NIGHTS         281 

the  day  and  raided  at  night ;  there  was  a  sinister  story 
in  the  laconic  communiques  of  the  war  office:  "The 
long-range  gun  resumed  the  bombardment  of  the  Paris 
district  this  morning,"  and  "a  fleet  of  enemy  aircraft 
crossed  our  lines  last  night  going  in  the  direction  of 
Paris  at  11  P.  M. ;  the  'all  clear'  was  given  at  1  A.  M." 
On  the  very  first  night  of  this  visit  the  unearthly  shriek 
of  the  siren  sounded  on  schedule  time,  and  as  its  shrill 
voice  died  away  there  was  silence.  One  could  hear  no 
excited  voices  and  no  sound  of  frightened  feet  scurrying 
to  shelter.  A  group  gathered  in  the  tea  room  of  the 
hotel,  away  from  the  windows,  and  awaited  the  visitors. 
They  arrived  in  due  time,  accompanied  by  the  rumble 
of  the  guns  and  the  general  din  of  battle,  and  remained 
as  unwelcome  guests  for  nearly  an  hour.  While  this 
raid,  which  did  not  materially  differ  from  all  others  of 
its  kind,  was  in  progress  there  was  a  smaller  degree  of 
excitement  in  this  group  and  among  the  general  popula- 
tion than  was  usually  observed  in  London  on  similar 
occasions.  But  the  tension  among  our  company  in  the 
hotel  was  relieved  by  a  belated  discovery  which  caused 
great  amusement:  we  found  that  in  our  eagerness  to 
avoid  windows  and  places  of  undue  hazard  we  had 
taken  refuge  in  a  tea  room  built  in  the  court  of  the 
hotel,  and  the  only  barrier  between  us  and  the  bombs 
of  the  Hun  had  been  the  art  glass  roof  above  our  heads ! 
More  terrible  were  the  afflictions  which  the  Boche 
visited  upon  the  cities  near  the  fronts;  and  more 
demoralizing  to  the  nerves  of  the  people  in  such  places 
were  their  experiences,  I  was  in  Toul  one  night  when 


282        SOCIAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

there  were  six  air-raids,  and  there  for  the  first  and  only 
time  I  suffered  from  excessive  fear.  Time  and  again 
during  the  night  we  heard  the  siren  warn  the  people 
and  there  was  little  respite  from  danger,  while  there 
were  some  unusual  features  which  made  the  raid  seem 
more  terrible  here  than  elsewhere.  The  city  was  much 
smaller  than  Paris  and  the  guns  and  enemy  planes  could 
be  heard  more  distinctly,  so  that  one  was  prone  to  believe 
the  enemy  was  hovering  imme/liately  over  his  head  and 
taking  accurate  aim  at  the  cot  on  which  he  happened  to 
be  lying.  Still  worse  were  the  cathedral  bells,  for  in 
Toul  the  bells  began  ringing  when  the  enemy  reached 
the  city  and  continued  until  he  was  well  on  his  way  back 
to  his  own  lines.  And  then  there  were  the  automatic 
rifles.  In  bombarding  a  small  city  the  aviators  must  of 
necessity  fly  much  lower  than  in  the  case  of  London  or 
Paris,  and  in  so  doing  they  came  oftentimes  in  range 
of  the  automatics;  and  these  guns  were  very  effective 
in  keeping  the  enemy  high.  The  rattling  of  these 
weapons  was  unusually  terrifying,  for  they  made  a 
noise  for  all  the  world  like  the  creaking  of  a  great  tree 
in  the  agony  of  falling.  When  I  heard  them  in 
Toul  my  first  thought  was  that  the  cathedral  had  been 
bombed  and  one  of  the  towers  or  walls  was  beginning 
to  fall,  but  since  the  unearthly  noise  continued  my  con- 
clusion had  to  be  revised. 

By  all  means  the  most  terrifying  of  all  my  experiences 
were  these  air-raids  in  Toul.  The  sirens,  the  bells,  the 
defense  barrage,  the  automatics,  the  bombs,  the  engines, 
the  crashes  of  splintered  houses — all  of  these  things  so 


CITIES  OF  HORRIBLE  NIGHTS         283 

heightened  the  sense  of  danger  that  terror  was  struck 
into  my  soul  for  the  first  time.  I  lay  on  my  cot  trem- 
bling like  an  aspen  leaf  and  covered  with  the  perspira- 
tion of  fear.  But  the  people  did  not  seem  to  share  my 
apprehension,  for  no  more  anxiety  was  observed  in  Toul 
than  in  other  and  larger  cities  which  were  subjected  to 
similar  torments.  On  one  occasion  I  was  dining  in  a 
company  when  the  siren  sounded ;  not  one  of  the  diners 
gave  the  slightest  heed,  the  topic  under  consideration 
was  not  changed,  no  mention  was  made  of  the  alarm, 
and  there  was  not  even  a  pause  in  the  conversation. 
Thus  calmly  did  the  people  regard  the  terror  that  flieth 
by  night 


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PAGE  THREE" 


OF  WAR  cofttinuM:. 


EP  8 


14Dec'53SS 


B  British  Government 

and  Ireland. 

IB  the  Government  gone  stark,  staring 
in  every  incident  of  its  actions  towards 
n  rdgan!  t,i  Ireland?"  ."k*  Jos«(lk Loofl^ 


t'Ara 


Of 


15m-4,'24 


rlE  BEST  COGNAC 

RODESHEIM   (Rhein) 


Q  ! 

/  I 


cities"  and 
Common 


rranklin  Hospital. 


English  Atrocities. 

Enulish  Kill  their  Aliie's  Wounded.  -  Orsastrous 

Raid  on  Largest  Fr«ncti  Field  Hospital   by 

Briliih  Flying  Squadron.  —  Operation  hall 

destroyed   -  Hundred  victims. 


Aga 


higher-ups". 

iaf.tr  of  n  in,..,,  v 


>r  following  Christ's 

immands! 


176 


AMUSEMENTS. 


GROSS-FRANKFUR1 

x  WEIN-KLAUSE  :-: 


1 


1NT1MES  THEATER 

An  Her  Hauptwnctio  -  Anfan«  8  Uhi 
"~~'yund  Kunsttfinie. 

roStr  Erfolg! 


mann- 
Theatei 

>  Mctropoltheaters  Kol 
,,Wenn  fm  FrChlini 

md  Emmy  Strang-Sttirm  ail  Ga 

FLER-PALAST 

.RKADIA  ^ 

.ugust  Oastspiel  des 
Qhmten  Qiansoniers 

N.MOREAU 

s  tibrige  erstklassige 
;  Programm  :-:  :-: 


UNIVERSITY  OP  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


>t  a  pice*  o 

Reuter  rei> 
fe  Atlantic 
)«i«s  of  hu 
>dpr  big  fi 
Mtrneaa  wit 
iu|ers  go  t 
Jtttthcy  sh 


(gelling  a  hold  on  Ihc  taui|.,  a.M  if  itulhm/ 


AMUSEMENTS. 


KURH  AUS  BAD  HOMBURG 


ZS  THEATER 

g,  den  9.  August  1918 

Gcw,  Preiie.     Ende  geg«n  10 

Zum  letztcn  Male; 

,4ur  ein  Traum. 

Litslsplel  in  3  Aktttt  von  Lolhar  Schmidt. 
nstag,  10,  »twm)»  8  Uhr:  Fumille  HajiMmi 


CABARETT  MAXIM 

Antattf  «  Uhr  Zell  «t 

MAX  WALOE,  Opwn-  m«)  UcdCTsanjer 
ELFRIEDE  SANZI.  Priroa  BaUerin«  vo« 
Su<ltth«4tcr  in  Hamburg. 
HEINZ  SCHII  D8ERQ 
utid  da»  flbrige  erstklassige  PfO(jranimv 


U.T.Kinenia 

,,Wenn  die  Liebe  stirbt" 

KBstllchr  Humortslte  In  4  Aklcn. 


